New Beginnings
by Waldojeffers
Summary: The sequel to "Magic Closet Ride". Will Zack manage to woo Bailey once again after their nasty break-up? And how will Max Russo and Cody cope with the aftermath of MCR? Completed.
1. Aftermath

_**A/N: **__This first chapter takes place right after Magic Closet Ride._

**Chapter 1: Aftermath

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**

**Sunday September 20, 2015**

It was seven o'clock in the morning when Cody Martin's alarm clock woke him up. For the second time. The first time he'd been aroused when it played Pearl Jam's oldie song, Alive, which was all well and good. But the second time, there was no song. Just the throbbing pain of the alarm clock falling down on his head. Apparently his boyfriend had been aroused too and wasn't exactly happy with that.

"Max Russo! Why did you do that for?"

"Why? Maybe because some stupid alarm woke me up at this unholy early hour. Why did you have to set it this early anyway?"

"Don't you remember? I promised Zack I'd be at his apartment around eleven. We were going to have a nice twin-day together," Cody explained to his annoyed partner, still lying next to him.

"Yeah, I know that," Max sighed. "But that's four hours from now. Why are you getting up now?"

"Um, I have to prepare myself?" Cody half-asked. It was quite obvious he himself didn't know why he had chosen 7 am to get up. He knew very well that he wouldn't need four whole hours to get ready.

"And you need four hours for that?" At this point Max was, sadly enough, clearly awake too. "I know you were a woman yesterday, but that still doesn't mean you have to take as much time for that as a girl would."

"You're right," Cody chuckled. "To be honest I think I kind of forgot to change the wake-up time from Friday when I had to get up early for Law School. I'm so sorry, Maxie. Maybe we can go back to sleep?"

"You know that's not gonna happen. Once up, I have a hard time getting back to sleep."

"I know, and I'm so sorry for that!" For a moment there Cody didn't know what to do. He was feeling really bad for taking away some of his boyfriend's night's rest. Cody knew Max liked to sleep long during the weekends. Especially when they just had long and hot sex like they had last night. "Why don't we stay in bed for a while, talk and cuddle a bit?"

Soon the two lovers were to be found in each other's arms, cuddling through the morning.

"You know, honey, I'm still so relieved we managed to get through yesterday unharmed," Max suddenly interrupted their cuddling.

"Oh yeah, me too!" Cody exclaimed. "But honestly, when Zack was hitting on me and recognized me I thought it was over."

"That must've been a very awkward moment for you, I guess?" Cody nodded. "By the way, I hope Zack is OK. His news about him and Bailey really shocked me."

"I know, I honestly thought Bailey was the one for him." He sighed, "If I know my brother well, he's probably really crushed by the break up. But he most likely won't show it; he'll just try to be his old self again by hitting on various other girls."

"Yeah, like Tyreesha," Max smirked.

Cody gave his wizard boyfriend an evil glare. That was the one memory he didn't want to recall, not ever again.

"Guess I'll find out soon enough what's really going on between my brother and Bailey." He remained silent for awhile, as if wanting to show he didn't exactly like to talk about his twin's problems without knowing what happened between them. "Although I have to say, the biggest surprise we got yesterday was that old professor of yours, Maxie."

"Yeah, I've known him for a long time, played pranks with him and even gave him a squishy pants to prank people. But I never thought he was into guys as well." Max paused for a moment to think about what happened yesterday. Remembering Professor Crumbs' tragic story clearly made his partner feel a bit sad.

Max took a breath and cleared his mouth. "I wish we could do something for Professor Crumbs; he's always been nice to me after all."

"You're right, sweetie. But is there anything we could do? It's not like we can get Ralph back for him," Cody said while his man put his arms around him.

"I know, but he looked so miserable when he left us yesterday."

He nodded and gave Max some small kisses. While being held by his guy, Cody suddenly remembered how the evening had ended before it had exploded into a night of the hottest sex they ever had. Before that his partner has showed him how inventive he was by coming up with a fictive story about Cody's death, a quality Cody liked a lot about him. Recalling those moments drew a smile onto his face.

"Why are you smiling like that, sweetie?" Max asked when he noticed his partner gazing at him.

"I was thinking of you—of how genius you were when you came up with that fake death-story."

"Thanks, but I rather not come up with such stories. To be honest it made me a bit down myself."

"Me too, but it had me thinking about something. You remember the bit about me volunteering at a centre for underprivileged children?" Cody asked.

"Um yes, where're you going with this?"

"Well, I was thinking of volunteering at a centre like that for real. You know I love kids and I'm smart, so I hope they could use someone like me there."

"You really want to do such a thing?"

"Yeah, I want to make myself useful. You know, using my knowledge to help children who don't get the chances in life we got. No, I really wanna do this, Maxie."

"Are you sure? Wouldn't that be too much with all your coursework?"

"Nah, I'm sure I can handle it. I mean, I'm top of the class, so I'm sure I'll be able to combine those two things. You know how well I'm doing in college," Cody said with a wink.

Max inhaled and looked his blond boyfriend in the eyes. "Okay, if you want to do this, then you should."

"Oh thank you, Maxie. I really do want this!" Cody exclaimed as he pulled his significant other in for a passionate hug.

Even though Cody didn't say anything at that moment, he could see that his wizard boyfriend was very proud of him for wanting to help underprivileged children. Cody knew he would be the perfect person for that. After all he always wanted to do nice things for others. That's the kind of person he was. While looking into Max's eyes he could read the exact same thing. Plus he noticed a look of pride.

"Hey, I could look around for you. You know, check where such centres are here in Boston, while you're out with Zack."

"You would? Oh honey, that's nice of you!" He exclaimed although he knew that they would probably end up seeking for those together. His boyfriend might be enthusiast about it but when it came to looking things like this up on the Internet he usually ended up being the one doing this. Nevertheless he loved it when his partner offered to help him anyway, like he did now.

"Eh, it's nothing. This way I can help you out. And maybe you can even visit one tomorrow if we find one in Boston," Max said enthusiastically.

Cody threw his man another loving gaze. Once again his partner's support reminded Cody Martin how lucky he was to have Max as his boyfriend.

"Anyway, I should go take a shower and take off for Zack's."

"Yeah, only two hours left. If you don't hurry up, you'll only be one hour too early at Zack's door," the young wizard said, shaking his head.

"Funny, Max… You know I want to be there on time."

Again, Max shook his head. Despite all of his attempts to get Cody to stop this nasty habit, he still hadn't succeeded. Sighing, Max deducted that he had no other choice than to get up too and join his boyfriend in the shower.

* * *

And yes, an hour later Cody was standing in front of Zack's apartment building, close to Fenway Park. Just like Max had predicted, Cody was about an hour too early. He knew his brother wouldn't appreciate it if he was there way too soon, so he decided to walk around the neighbourhood for a while. After all, this was the area where he had spent his teen years while living in the Boston Tipton Hotel.

To his surprise, his footsteps brought him to the very same park where he and his older brother used to play all the time. Cody couldn't suppress a little smile when he saw that he was standing in front of Liberty Park. Immediately he decided the best thing to do while waiting until it was time to go back to his twin's apartment was to go inside the park, sit on a bank, and enjoy the environment.

Sitting there brought back so many memories. The most vivid one was from about nine years ago: one where he and Zack, together with all their friends at the Tipton Hotel, had managed to save Liberty Park from being turned into a parking lot. It had been Zack who'd ultimately saved the day by finding out the historic significance of the park, but Cody had done his part too by softening City Hall with his strongly worded letter. Thanks to this, both their names had been immortalized on a gold-coloured plaque in the park as its saviours. Good memories indeed.

His trip through memory lane didn't last long though, because suddenly a soccer ball landed in his lap. Apparently there were some kids playing an exciting game of soccer in the park. But unfortunately for Cody, the last shot on the goal totally missed its target and ended up with him.

"Hey, mister, can we have our ball back, please?" a brown haired boy yelled while running in Cody's direction.

"Sure," Cody answered as he looked at the boy who was now standing right in front of him, waiting to receive the ball. He looked to be about 12 or 13 years old, as far as Cody could tell. "There you go… What's your name?"

"Liam, sir."

"Please don't call me sir. Cody is good enough." The blonde man still couldn't get used to being called sir. He wasn't a sir, he was just Cody Martin. "But shouldn't you go back to your friends? They're probably dying to go on with your game."

"Yeah…" Liam responded as he made way back to his friends. "Thanks again, si-…I mean, Cody."

When Cody saw Liam and his friends getting entangled in their game of soccer again, he actually sighed a bit. Seeing the boys playing has brought up something that has been bothering him for quite some time. It reminded him of his wish to have children of his own someday. To have a family, just like everyone else, just like his mom and dad.

His parents had been very young when Zack and he were born. In fact they had been almost the same age as he was now when they had started a family. It made him wonder if he'd ever have a family just like them.

But that wasn't possible for him; he couldn't have a conventional family like his mom and dad had. Well, at least not the family they'd had before his dad left, which was a mistake Cody was determined never to make. If he would ever have kids of his own, he would be there for them, unlike his dad who was never around.

But ever since he had fallen for Max, the ship of conventional families had sailed. No, every family he would ever have would be unconventional and wouldn't have biological children for him and Max. Even though he would never consider leaving Max for something like that, it still made him a bit sad.

He knew he shouldn't be sad about it. He loved Max and he wanted to have a family with him, even if it meant having an unconventional one. But he really wanted to adopt kids someday. Of course, this wouldn't happen right away. Max was still only 21 for crying out loud and 21 was most definitely not the right age to start with kids. Cody knew his boyfriend wasn't ready for that yet, as nobody at that age would be.

His only fear was that when the time came, Max might not be as open to having a family as he was, that maybe Max wouldn't want the same things in life as he wanted. Life together had been so easy when they were in high school. It had been all about loving each other and doing things together or for each other, but now it had become so much more. It was also about living together, and building up their adult lives together, which was probably the biggest challenge they'd ever faced. Sometimes when he thought about such things too much, Cody was afraid Max might not be up to the challenge.

All this thinking had made time pass by faster than he realized. It was almost eleven o'clock and time to go to Zack's and finally find out what happened between his brother and one of his best friends. Before leaving, he looked back at the playing kids and sighed as he saw Liam wave at him. How would he have loved to have a boy like Liam to be his son…

Returning to Zack's apartment building made him recall why he was here again: his twin's break-up. He was hoping their relationship wasn't too seriously damaged. Maybe, if it wasn't, Cody could team up with his brother and they could try to mend it. Yes, he was determined to help Zack get back together with Bailey. He was sure this was what Zack wanted too. The look on Zack's face when he informed them yesterday about his break-up had said it all: his twin brother was devastated and hadn't wanted this to happen.

Before Cody could ring the bell of the building, a tall man in a suit walked out the door. Cody quickly held onto the door and entered. So much easier than to ring and wait for his lazy brother to open it.

After going up a few floors, Cody finally reached the door of his twin's place. But to his surprise the door was left ajar. That was quite weird since Zack never did that. Especially not after all the lectures he got from Cody for living in such a dangerous neighbourhood.

'This can't be good. Why would Zack leave this open?' Cody said to himself as he pushed the door open. Only to meet an ever bigger surprise than a door left ajar.

Zack's place was a mess, but not the normal mess Zack used to make in their old suite in the Tipton Hotel. No, this was much worse. It looked like a tornado had flown through his apartment: clothes were all over the place, closets and drawers were opened, empty beer bottles were scattered everywhere. So far it looked like there had been a drinking party last night. There was nothing to worry about.

But Cody did worry. Because of what he saw next. Two of Zack's favourite things were broken, his TV and his PlayStation 5. Well, broken was perhaps not the right word. They looked more like they had been smashed with a baseball bat.

Cody's blood started to run cold.

What could have happened? What could have left behind a catastrophe like this? Burglars, maybe? Or vandals?

Terrified, Cody walked over to Zack's bed. And what he saw there shocked him to the point where his heart skipped a beat: Zack wasn't in his bed; he was nowhere to be found. Cody didn't know what to expect now and did the only thing he could think of: search the entire apartment.

"Zack!" He shouted, hoping against hope that his twin would answer him.

* * *

_**Author's Note: **__So we've reached the end of the first chapter of the sequel to Love To The Max & Magic Closet Ride (so technically it's not a sequel but oh well). And I think I managed to end with a nice cliffhanger, the kind I would hate myself actually. Oh well, I'm sure you'll love it!_

_Many thanks go out to Elianna22 who has inspired me a lot and betaread this chapter. Also many thanks to the-lovely-anomaly who kindly accepted to act as editor for this story (or at least this chapter)._

_Stay tuned for next chapter although I won't promise posting dates for that. As always a review would be highly appreciated._


	2. We Have Some Cleaning To Do

**Chapter 2: We Have Some Cleaning To Do

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After shouting a few times for his brother, Cody waited a bit and looked around in the apartment. Maybe Zack was still here; somewhere in a place he hadn't checked when he had first entered.

Cody was about to yell for his twin one last time when he suddenly heard a strange sound, like someone was groaning. His heart skipped a beat once again as he realized he was not alone in Zack's apartment. Hoping the sound was coming from his twin brother, Cody went to look for its source.

While searching through Zack's bedroom he heard the sound again. This time he could tell it was clearly coming from the same room he was in. In particularly from the large pile of clothes that was lying next to the bed. Before he could look underneath the clothes, he saw something moving and pushing them aside.

"Zack, is that you?"

"Mmm, yeah, I think," the voice, which indeed belonged to Zack, muttered in confusion. "Cody? Why are you here?"

"Zack! What the hell were you doing there? You scared the crap out of me, man!" Cody yelled while he pulled his older brother up from under the huge pile of dirty clothes.

"God, Cody… would you stop yelling, please? My head hurts like hell!"

He didn't need to hear more. Now it became quite obvious what Zack had been doing last night and what had probably caused most of the mess in this place. Apparently Zack hadn't gone straight home after he had left Cody's house. Judging from the state Zack and the apartment were in he had visited a few bars before home.

"Um…Cody, what time is it? It can't be eleven yet, can it?" Zack asked while he was searching for some clean clothes in his closet.

"It's already past eleven, Zack!" Cody got a little irritated by his brother's obvious behaviour from last night. "Why did you have to get so drunk? You trashed the whole place for crying out loud! And why were you sleeping under all those clothes?"

"Don't yell like that!" Zack pleaded. "I honestly have no idea why. I could have sworn I was in my bed when I went to sleep last night. But it looks like I missed my bed after all and ended up there. And you know I'm a wild sleeper…"

Cody sighed and looked around the apartment, once again noticing the mess and all the broken stuff. "Yet you manage to mess up your whole apartment in your drunken state?"

"Not really. Most of this was already here before I left for your place yesterday," his older twin replied, looking at the floor. "But what the hell? Did I really break my TV and PlayStation last night? Damn, how could that have happened? I'm always super-careful with those things!"

"You were very drunk, man, that's what happened…"

"Come on, I wasn't that drunk…" Zack started.

"Dude, I can still smell the beer on your breath," Cody exclaimed. "But it's alright. Go take a shower so we can go out and grab a quick lunch."

Zack nodded and quickly made his way to the shower. But before he entered the bathroom he stared back at his twin with a sad look on his face. Cody immediately understood his brother was trying to apologize to him for what had happened and showed him a comforting smile.

While Zack was taking a shower Cody sat down on the bed, one of the few places in his brother's apartment that wasn't messy, and thought about what he had seen here. At first he had been really scared for his twin. Mainly because he had no idea what had happened to him. Finding Zack had been a huge relief for him, but now he was actually worrying about his twin brother again. More specifically, about the condition he had found him in.

Sure, Zack had been drunk many times before, but this time was different. Last night his twin had gone further than he ever had. Judging from the damages in the room, Cody was pretty sure Zack had never been this drunk before. Not even when he graduated High School, which had been a pretty big event for him.

Cody suspected that his reason for drinking way too much had something to do with Bailey. And if he was right about that, than it meant the break-up weighed harder on Zack than he had expected. Okay, his brother had looked devastated yesterday when he told Max he had broken up with the only long-term girlfriend he'd ever had, but the state Cody had found him in here suggested he felt far worse.

Even though he couldn't be sure Bailey was the reason for Zack's behaviour last night and his condition now, he wasn't prepared to take risks. He didn't want Zack to throw himself into alcohol just because he had lost his girlfriend. It was quite simple actually; all Cody had to do now was be there for him, and perhaps help him woo Bailey again if he still loved her.

But that was about the one thing Cody was absolutely sure of: his brother was still in love with Bailey Pickett.

Suddenly something struck him: in all the mess in his brother's apartment, he hadn't seen anything that belonged to Bailey. Last time he had visited them here, the place had been a mixture of his twin's and Bailey's belongings, but now Bailey's were all gone. That couldn't have happened overnight; Bailey had a lot of stuff, and it would have taken at least a few days to get all her belongings out of here. Wait, that meant his brother and Bailey had been broken up for a longer time than he had believed!

His thoughts got interrupted abruptly when Zack entered the bedroom again, freshly showered. "Hey bro, you look much better. You ready to go out for lunch?"

"Thanks! Sure, let's go!" Zack replied while he grabbed his shoes. "But could we go to a sandwich bar, or something else that's light? I doubt my stomach would be able to take on heavy food right now."

"No problem, dude," Cody assured his brother. "We could go to that Subway near Liberty Park. They have good sandwiches, enough vegetables for a healthy lunch... plus, there's a really cute guy working behind the counter."

"You do know you have a boyfriend, don't you?"

"Yes, I know that, but it's not like I'm cheating on Max by just looking at cute guys," Cody explained. "You do the same with girls all the time."

"I guess you're right…" his older brother responded. "Anyhow, Subway is okay for me. Let's go."

Soon they were having lunch in the local Subway – the one with the cute guy behind the counter. Cody was enjoying a delicious Chicken Teriyaki Sub while Zack was struggling with a Meatball Marinara. Apparently all the drinks from last night didn't agree with him eating his favourite sandwich.

"See, I told you that you shouldn't have the meatball one now; a lighter sandwich might've been better." Like always, Cody couldn't withstand the urge to lecture his brother.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah…" Zack didn't seem to be in the mood for one of his criticisms.

"Alright then, instead why don't you tell me what happened?"

"You know what happened: I left your house, went to a few bars, and got insanely drunk. That's it," his twin stated, with a slight annoyance in his voice.

"That's not what I meant, Zack. I mean between you and Bailey; I can't believe you two broke up!"

"Oh that…" His brother looked at the floor in shame. Or was it sadness? "I'm not sure if I can explain why, but we've been fighting over things for weeks now."

Cody was completely stunned. Weeks of fighting and he hadn't known anything? He felt a bit sad that Bailey hadn't told him about her arguments with his brother, or about the pending break-up. Didn't she trust him enough? Or maybe she didn't tell him because he was Zack's brother. This could be the reason yes; Bailey wouldn't tell him first if she was thinking of breaking up with his twin brother. She must have known he would tell Zack right away. For he had never been able to keep secrets like that from his brother. They were twins after all. Bailey probably would have thought that by telling him she would have put him in an awkward position between his best friend and his twin brother. No doubt she didn't want to do that to him.

"So, what were you fighting about?"

Zack sighed and looked Cody in the eyes before he spoke. "I think the main issue was Bailey thinking I had to grow up. She said I was still the same teen she met years ago, instead of a young adult building on his life."

"Why would she say… Oh Zack, you lost your job again, didn't you?"

"No, of course not!" Zack exclaimed. "Well okay, maybe, kind of."

"What you mean, kind of?"

"I-I-I didn't really lose my job, I quit."

"You did what?" Cody yelled, causing almost everyone at Subway — including the cute guy behind the counter — to look in his direction. "Why did you quit this time? Isn't this like the twentieth time you lose or quit your job? God, what's wrong with you, bro?"

"I just didn't like it, okay? Come on, Cody, the job was lame: can you see me working as assistant manager at Cheap Charlie's?" Zack attempted to defend himself. "And that was only the fifteenth job, not the twentieth!"

"Oh yeah, that makes it better… Why can't you just hold on to a job?" Cody asked. To be honest, he didn't think being assistant manager at Cheap Charlie's was that lame. His brother had never been one to hold onto a job for long after he had flunked his first year of college and had decided college wasn't the best option for him. Since then Zack had been doing several jobs, like assistant manager at Paul Revere's, where they had been bagboys together years ago. Or like assistant manager at the local bowling alley, the one job Zack had loved. But when the bowling alley had gotten new management, his twin had been fired. That had been the worst thing that could have happened to his brother. After his dismissal there he had never been able to keep a job for longer than a month. Cody couldn't understand why his brother never gave those jobs an honest chance. They couldn't be that bad, could they?

"I don't know, I just didn't like them," his twin answered dryly.

"All of them? Oh Zack, doesn't it occur to you that maybe this might be what Bailey meant by growing up?" Cody exclaimed. He was pretty sure this might very well be one of the main causes for his brother's break-up. She was in law school with him after all, while her guy was getting himself fired at lame jobs all the time. Looking at it like that, he actually understood why Bailey didn't want to go on like that anymore.

"Maybe. She was kind of furious when I told her that news though. I guess that's when everything between us started to go terribly wrong. Bailey got mad over everything at the end; even my apartment was too messy," Zack explained.

"I've seen your place; believe me, you can't blame Bailey for wanting to see that finally cleaned up."

Somehow this reminded him of what happened about ten years ago between him and Zack. His brother had messed up their room so much that Cody couldn't take it anymore and had decided to live into the closet for some time. Eventually he'd come out of the closet and started rooming with Zack again, but only after he had made his brother promise to keep their room clean. Now it seemed like Zack hadn't changed at all and still didn't care if he lived in a pigsty.

"Perhaps you're right," Zack admitted while he finally managed to finish his Meatball Marinara. "I remember she also claimed that I didn't want the same in life as she wanted—that a relationship for us would be pointless."

"Really? She said that?" His brother gave him a small nod. "Zack, in all fairness, do you still love Bailey?"

"I…I don't know…yes, I guess," Zack mumbled.

"You don't know? You're not even sure you love her?" He couldn't believe what his brother just said. He was prepared to do anything to help Zack get back together with Bailey, but he couldn't do that if Zack wasn't even sure he wanted to. It didn't seem like he did. That is, unless his older brother was just going through a phase — a difficult phase right after his break-up. He had to contend with that. He remembered how devastated he was when one of his former girlfriends, Irma, had broken up with him. If it hadn't been for Zack telling he should get out there again, he probably would have been depressed for a long time.

"Shouldn't you, first of all, figure out for yourself if you still want to be with Bailey?"

"It's not that easy, Cody. I'm actually pretty sure I want her back, but I don't think I have a chance with her anyway," Zack sighed.

"You don't know that, bro. Maybe she's already waiting for you? After all, she did stay here in Boston. Doesn't say that enough?"

"Yeah, that only says she stayed in Boston because she happens to attend Boston University School of Law. Would be kind of hard to do that if you're in Kettlecorn, don't you think?"

Cody was cursing himself on the inside because he knew Zack was right. Even if Bailey stayed here for Zack, there was no way of knowing since she had to stay in Boston anyway. Nevertheless, he thought there would still be a chance for his brother with his best friend. Maybe with his support, Zack might realize this too.

"Nonetheless I'm certain she still likes you. Believe me, bro, you do have a chance with her."

"How can you be so sure of that?" Zack asked him with a slightly annoyed voice.

"I'm her best friend, aren't I? So believe me, I know what I'm saying. You can win her back," he explained. "Come on, let's go clean your apartment!"

"Clean my apartment? Why? I thought we were going to hang out together today!"

"A small change of plans, Zack. And let's face it, your apartment needs it. Hell, you need it; this cleaning will be good for you. It will help you to get over the break-up," Cody responded enthusiastically.

"How would that make me feel better?"

"It will, dear brother. After all, it did the same for me when Irma broke up with me."

"You gotta be kidding me, dude," Zack exclaimed. "That will so not help."

Nevertheless Zack agreed with his plan, probably because the mess in his place was one of the issues between him and Bailey. Cody could tell his brother was thinking this might very well be the first step in wooing Bailey again, and that was probably not so far from the truth. Most girls, and guys like Cody, preferred a clean, orderly apartment, as opposed to the chaos there was in Zack's apartment right now.

* * *

Apparently even Cody had underestimated the mess in Zack's home. He had expected to spend a few hours there cleaning up and after that maybe have some fun time together. But there was much more work to do than he could have ever imagined when he had suggested that, instead of hanging out, they should spend the afternoon clearing up his twin's apartment.

"Wow, Zack, I can actually see the floor again. This is quite impressive," he said when it was almost dinnertime. Luckily, they were as good as finished with this cleaning job.

"Thanks to you, buddy."

"Well, you did help too. I didn't know you had it in you to tidy up a place like this," Cody smirked. "What say you keep this spotless from now on? It will benefit your situation with Bailey."

"Maybe…," his twin mumbled. "How do you and Max manage all of this actually? I mean, he's two years younger than you, and a real prankster. If anyone would still be immature it should be him. But no, his relationship with my brother is perfect; you guys never fight. I don't get it, Cody, what does he do that I don't?"

"Ah come on, Zack, even you can't believe that! We have our arguments too. We even broke up for a short time five years ago. Surely you remember that?"

"Yeah OK, but that was years ago. Every couple goes through a break-up during their high school time." Cody had to admit his brother was right. Most high school relationships didn't last. Those years were part of an experimenting period in life, a learning experience for how to model the rest of your life. Nobody expected you to hold on to your high school love anyway; it's totally normal for people to grow apart from the people they loved in high school. Both he and his brother had been extremely lucky to find a permanent soul-mate in high school, even though it hadn't always been a smooth path for them.

"Actually I meant in your adult life, Cody. Why doesn't Max have the same problems as I have? I mean, you're a much worse neat-freak and nerd than Bailey ever was…"

"Yeah, thanks a lot, bro…" Cody faked being angry at his brother. He knew his twin was only joking with him. "But if you want to know, why not come to dinner with us tomorrow evening? Then you can ask Max yourself if you want. What'd you think?"

"Hmm, okay, I'll be there. I like coming over to your place anyway," his brother responded.

"Alright, it's settled then. By now you should know when to be there, I guess," Cody asked, getting ready to return back home. Suddenly, as he reached for the door, he got an idea that might help Zack take his mind off of things, as well as make him more responsible and adult. Plus, it might be something he and his brother could do together since they didn't spend that much time together anymore and he was really missing those times they did.

"Hey Zack, I know this will sound crazy to you, but I'm thinking of volunteering at a centre for underprivileged children and I might be visiting one tomorrow if I find one I like on the Internet tonight. So I wanted to ask you if you'd want to come with me, and maybe volunteer too?" he asked carefully.

"Um, I don't know, Cody. Volunteering to help underprivileged children? Isn't that more your thing?"

"Yeah, it's my thing, but Zack, we barely do things together anymore and I thought this might be something to do together." His brother still seemed a little reluctant to accept this offer, until Cody added, "Come on, bro, this will be fun!"

That finally pulled Zack over, so he accepted Cody's invitation. And who knew? Maybe this would turn out to be a very good thing for his relation with his brother.

"Can I ask you something before you go?" Zack asked.

Cody nodded.

"Could you maybe...perhaps...ask Max if he could to use a little magic to help me with Bailey?"

Cody sighed. He felt slightly disappointed his brother asked that of him. Hadn't he just yesterday explained why Max didn't want everyone to know he was a wizard? And wasn't this not exactly what he was afraid of? His brother had even promised him not to ask Max for such favours. However, he could understand why Zack would, and deep down, he wished he could give Zack what he wanted; he wished he could persuade Max to help his brother. But he knew Max wouldn't, at least not right away.

"You know I can't do that, Zack. Max doesn't want that. And would it be real love if you used magic for it?"

"Maybe you're right. But can't you just ask, little brother?"

"Honestly Zack, I can't, I'm sorry," he said, feeling bad for having to refuse his twin like that. "Anyhow, I'm going now. I'll call you tomorrow about the centre. Bye Zack!"

"Bye Cody," he heard his brother say as he walked out the door and down the hallway.

* * *

_**Author's Notes: **__Luckily Zack seems to have survived the first chapter and as always Cody was overreacting. Although Zack didn't seem that well either: it looks like he has a long way to go if he wants Bailey back. At least he has Cody by his side, which should count for something._

_This time thanks go out to Elianna22 for advice and proofreading and to the-lovely-anomaly for editing._

_I hope you all liked this reading this, and if you did, won't hesitate to click the review button._


	3. Can A Pranking Teen Become Responsible?

**Chapter 3: Can A Pranking Teenager Become A Responsible Adult?

* * *

**

While Cody was walking home he was still reflecting on what had happened right before he left. The last thing Zack said had really gotten to him. Why did his brother have to ask the dreaded magic-question? It'd been only a day since he had explained to his twin why magic was not an option, yet Zack couldn't resist asking him to get Max to help him magically.

Cody knew what his partner's answer would be even without asking. They had discussed it a long time ago: Max had said he would love to help their close friends out but he didn't want them asking him for favours all the time. So they had decided not to tell any of their close friends that Max was a wizard.

But now his brother knew and already asked for a favour. This had left him torn between his twin brother and his boyfriend. He wanted to do Zack this favour, but he knew Max would say no. This time he had chosen his partner's side and had refused to ask him. He had seen the disappointment in Zack's eyes though when he'd said no, but he also believed his brother didn't really need magic. He could woo Bailey without magic too, and wouldn't that be more sincere?

Completely lost in his thoughts, Cody hadn't noticed he had reached the house that was being built next to theirs. They were almost done there so soon he and Max would have new neighbours. And on both sides, since a house was being built on their other side too. Quite exciting actually.

Setting foot in his own house, Cody immediately got greeted by his partner giving him a small welcome kiss. One that, like always, ended up as more than just a small welcome kiss…

"How did things go with Zack?" Max questioned him, almost right after they had broken their kiss.

"You don't beat around the bush today, do you?" His boyfriend threw him a smirk at that. "But can you wait till dinner? I still have to make dinner after all."

"That's not entirely true, sweetie," Max corrected. "I knew you were gonna be out for quite a while so I thought I'd surprise you with dinner."

"You made dinner? That's so sweet of you, Maxie!" He showed his gratitude by giving his boyfriend a big hug. This small gesture illustrated again that, unlike his brother, Max had made the click from being an irresponsible pranking teenager to a responsible adult. If only Zack could do the same… "Wait… You didn't use your wand to make it, did you? You know I'm not crazy about food that's magically made."

"No, I made this all by myself, without any magic. It won't be as good as anything you can cook, but I hope you'll like it anyway."

"I'm sure I will, I always enjoy everything you do for me, sweetie."

Max was actually much better in the kitchen than he always claimed to be. Okay, he wasn't as good as Cody but Cody thought very highly of his man's skills as a chef. Obviously he had taught Max all he knew and his boyfriend had been a pretty good student. He had always seemed very passionate to get better at cooking; pleasing his partner with a delicious meal had been a good incentive for him. And tonight Max had gone out of his way and had indeed prepared an excellent dinner.

After dinner, Cody and Max had seated themselves in the living room, accompanied by a glass of wine and Cody's laptop. He and his significant other sat there quietly for a while, enjoying the wine and each other's company. Both were curious to know how the other had spent his day. Cody could tell Max was dying to know about what had happened with Zack. Of course he would want to know more about his brother-in-law's relationship: that was perfectly understandable.

"So, you want me to do what?" Max asked after Cody had explained almost everything, while cleverly leaving out the part where his brother has asked him to get Max to help him magically; he was afraid his boyfriend might not take that question too well.

"Nothing major, honey. I just suggested to Zack that he should talk to you about his problems growing up."

"Why me? I'm no relation-wizard or anything."

"I know, but you know you and my brother are actually a lot alike: both pranksters and you were both immature back in our high school years." He stopped for a moment as there were suddenly flooding many happy memories through his head. "Actually, Zack just wanted to know how you managed to become more responsible — you know, how you 'adjusted to adult life'."

"But I'm not a responsible mature adult!" Max exclaimed.

"Yes, you are, but responsible with a touch of Max, just like I love you," he said, sliding himself closer to his guy. "And don't sell yourself short. You know as well as I do that you did change after winning the Wizard Competition."

"Maybe you're right, but it's not like I can advise Zack to do the same."

"That's true, but I'm sure you'll think of something. If someone can, it's you, honey."

"Oh alright, so he'll be here for dinner tomorrow?" Max wanted to know. "You want me to fix dinner again?"

"Nah, that's OK. I'll arrange that when I get back," he assured his boyfriend. "Won't be anything big though because I want to try to visit a centre for underprivileged children when I get back from college."

"Oh yeah, I almost forget about that. Shouldn't we be researching the Internet for one?" his man suggested as he passed on Cody's laptop to him.

"Good plan, let's find one!"

The next hour Max and Cody – mainly Cody himself – were googling around for such centres. It turned out there were quite a lot to be found in Boston. However, Cody didn't feel the right vibe with most of them. He wanted to volunteer at a centre that would combine more academic programs with an extensive sports program. He knew Zack wouldn't be into helping out with the academic stuff, like homework assistance or teaching the foreign kids English. But a sports program might just be able to tickle his twin's interest, while he wanted to be able to use his own academic abilities.

"Hey Cody, look at this one: this seems like a good one. I think I've even heard of it," Max suddenly uttered.

"Boys Town? Yeah, it does sound familiar… Perhaps because it's from a movie! You just saw the movie; you never heard of the centre, did you?"

"Yeah, that could be… It looked great in the movie though! I think…"

"Well, I doubt the movie will be just like real life, Maxie. Besides that, I don't really feel comfortable with that one. It seems to be a pretty big organization, all over the country. I'd prefer a smaller one, one that's only located in Boston and works local." Suddenly his eyes were glued to the webpage of yet another organization. "Like this one here: it's called 'New Beginnings', seems like a nice place and they focus on both academics and sports: sounds perfect!"

After only a few minutes of discussing this with his boyfriend, Cody had decided 'New Beginnings' would be the one of his choice. He had already informed Mister Samuel Winters that he would be coming by the following day, together with his brother. This Mr. Winters, who apparently was the manager there, had been very happy with Cody's phone call. It turned out they were in real need for more volunteers, so his call couldn't have been more welcome.

"You're taking Zack with you to a centre for underprivileged children? Why? There's absolutely nothing for him there," Max exclaimed when he realized Cody wouldn't be visiting 'New Beginnings' alone.

"I don't know, maybe it could be useful in finding himself again." While he said that he suddenly got a vision of his brother and all the mess he was in, and not just the mess in his apartment. "Actually I asked him because I wanted us to do something together. We barely hang out together, or do stuff like we used to do when we were teens... like terrorizing Mr. Moseby. I really miss those times. By the way, isn't it the same for you? How long has it been since you've seen your siblings?"

"I might be seeing Justin tomorrow, I'm afraid," Max mumbled.

"Why? Is something wrong?"

"Well, I didn't get to tell you before but there have been some strange things going on here today."

"Strange things? Isn't that normal? Don't you experiment with your magic or something?"

"Not really. I know you don't like it when I hex our normal stuff." Cody shuddered as he remembered how one of his pans suddenly had gotten an attitude when he wanted to make a nice fish in it. "But no, this was something else that I noticed. In fact, I think it might have been a ghost."

"G-g-ghost? You sure? What happened that made you think it's a ghost?"

"Typical ghost-stuff. You know, doors opening and closing, things disappearing and reappearing in a different place — all pretty weird. Oh and I heard something that sounded like a waterfall, but in our living room."

"Yeah, that sounds like a g-g-ghost," Cody muttered. "But you can handle the ghost, can't you?"

Cody felt a bit scared actually when Max had mentioned the possibility of a ghost in their house. Being together with a wizard, he had learned to get accustomed to strange phenomena (like the penguin incident, for example.) Max had taught him not to fear them: they were normal in the life of a wizard. But ghosts were a different matter for Cody; those did scare him.

This was due to something that had happened ten years ago at the Tipton Hotel. Around Halloween, he and their friends at the hotel had played a practical joke on his brother, using the legend of the ghost it suite 613. They had managed to give Zack a piece of his own medicine by scaring him with fake ghostly appearances in the suite. But later that day Cody and his twin both ended up being frightened like hell after seeing the real ghost of suite 613 walk out of a portrait.

Zack had quickly forgotten about this event, but Cody hadn't. He had kept on seeing ghosts under his bed until his mother had cleaned the space with holy water. No wonder Max's announcement of the possible presence of ghosts frightened him a bit.

"Yeah, I probably can handle it. But to be honest, I don't really know that much about ghosts," his boyfriend admitted. "I know Justin has a few books about ghosts though. So that's why I'm visiting him tomorrow; I'll borrow one of them. I'll be able to fix it by then, okay?"

"Sure," he mumbled

"Um Cody, are you...afraid of a ghost here?"

"No, not at all." He paused for second. "Yeah, maybe a little bit. It's just something that happened with a ghost when I was a kid that freaked me out."

"It's okay, you don't have to worry about them: I'm here for you," Max said as he put his arms around him in comfort. As always Cody felt completely safe and protected in his significant other's big strong arms.

"Come, let's go to bed."

* * *

**Monday September 21, 2015**

After a rather dull lecture on Civil Rights, Cody and his friend, Bailey, were heading to the cafeteria for lunch. The whole morning Cody had been dying to hear Bailey's version of her break-up with his twin brother. As someone who loved Law, Cody thought he should hear both sides of the story before he could judge and decide what actions he could take to help his brother and his friend get back together.

"So, how was the rest of your weekend, Cody?" Bailey asked once they had found themselves a table to lunch.

"It was…um…eventful." This was definitely an understatement after the weekend he had that started on Friday evening with a nice birthday party, continued with being turned into a woman on Saturday, and ended with cleaning out Zack's garbage on Sunday. A very eventful weekend indeed. "How was yours?"

"Oh, I was out shopping with London all Saturday. That was actually quite fun; she even bought me some nice stuff. You should see my new dress. It's so cute!"

"Maybe later, there's something I wanted to talk about." Bailey stared at him with a questioning look. "I was at Zack's yesterday and he told me you two broke up."

"Um, yeah, it's true, we did break up." Bailey clearly didn't feel comfortable about the whole break-up either as she started staring at the floor.

"But why didn't you tell me?" he asked, even though he knew the answer. "If it hadn't been for Zack blurting it out, I wouldn't have known anything about it."

"Oh Cody, I'm so sorry I didn't tell you before, but I didn't want to bring you in the middle of this. Zack is your twin brother after all. I didn't want to force you to choose between me and Zack." This was exactly the explanation he had hoped to get from his brother's ex.

"It's alright, I understand," he assured her. "But why? Why'd you break-up with my brother? You were so perfect for each other!"

"Perfect? Yeah, maybe we _were_, but not anymore. It's clear to me that we don't want the same things in life."

"What'd you mean?"

"Haven't you seen your brother lately, Cody? He has become a no-good bum; he doesn't want to get ahead in life. Instead he's losing job after job, messing up his apartment every time, and he's out partying all night."

"So basically it's still the same old Zack you fell in love with years ago," he commented.

"Something like that, yes. Mind you, I still like Zack, but I can't go on like this anymore. I'm a law school-student; I have a bright future lying ahead of me while my boyfriend just quit his job at Cheap Charlie's and acts like a little kid. But I want to settle down and start working on my future as an adult, just like you and Max are doing now. I should have a boyfriend like you two, but instead I had Zack and I just can't be saddled with such a bum; he's throwing himself away," she rattled on.

Cody didn't know what to say: this was exactly what he had been afraid of. Bailey seemed very determined that breaking-up had been the right decision to make. The worst thing about all of this was that when he was completely honest with himself he understood why she made that decision, why she couldn't go on anymore. But he couldn't think like that; he had to keep his twin brother in mind. But it actually didn't look that bad for Zack. After all, Bailey had admitted she still liked him. Only thing his brother needed to do was get his life back on track, get a job, and become more mature. And of course, he was going to try to help his brother with this.

"I see… but Zack means it well, he just doesn't know what to do with his life right now," he finally replied.

"And that's exactly what I don't need. I want a boyfriend who knows what he wants to do, one who is ready for adult life," she complained. "You know, he's 23 now and he still doesn't show any signs of growing up. How much longer do you think I should have put up with his irresponsible BS? I would have lost all my self-respect if I hadn't put an end to it!"

Cody sighed. It seemed like his brother had a lot of work to do before Bailey would even consider taking him back.

"So, Bailey, I was with Zack yesterday and I noticed all your stuff was gone. You have a place to stay? I mean, if you would really need one…" he reluctantly suggested. He knew it would be a bad thing to do since his twin brother was the one Bailey had dumped, but he felt that as a good friend he had to make the offer. Even though it would put him in the middle and would mean trouble for him.

"That's sweet of you, Cody, but no thanks. I'm staying with London for now," she explained.

"Oh, that's great!" He didn't speak it out loud but he felt very relieved she had already found shelter somewhere.

"So, did you see that new professor of Constitutional Law? Isn't he cute?" Bailey said in an attempt to change the subject.

"Mmm, he's okay."

"Oh, come on…"

Soon the two friends were entangled in a vivid discussion of whether or not the new professor was a cutie. They were so focused on their conversation that they almost forgot lunchtime was pretty short on Mondays.

"Bailey! We gotta run, we're late for Corporate Law!"

* * *

_**Author's Notes: **__So now we've seen Bailey's perspective on the break-up too and if you ask me Zack is in real big trouble. Will he be able to impress Bailey again? Things look very bad for him. And what will happen when Zack & Cody visit 'New Beginnings'?_

_As always I have to thank Elianna22 (betaread) & the-lovely-anomaly (editor) for their amazing work._

_Also thanks for reading and enjoying this chapter, reviews are very appreciated. _


	4. New Beginnings

**Chapter 4: New Beginnings

* * *

**

A few hours and a few classes later, Cody Martin and his brother were walking through Boston in the direction of a centre called 'New Beginnings'. Cody was pretty enthusiast about this particular one: after an in-depth investigation the night before this one had come out looking like the best. Or at least as the one who matched all of his requirements.

"Really Cody, I have no idea what I'm doing here," Zack said, a little less enthusiast than his brother.

"Oh come on, don't be negative, bro. I specifically picked out one with a sports program: I thought you might like that."

"Well, maybe but... I just don't know. I mean, helping children out? That's in your league, not mine."

"Yes, it is, but it could be yours too," Cody said persuasively. "You might even have fun doing it; it's very similar to your job as night manager at the bowling alley. Didn't you love working with the kids there?"

"Okay, good point," Zack admitted. "I guess I could give it a try. You know, look around and check some things out."

Cody nodded. Even though his brother was reluctant to volunteer at New Beginnings now, Cody suspected he'd change his mind once he saw the centre's basketball court. He was sure his twin would love finally being able to do things together... even though they probably wouldn't work together that much.

While Cody was envisioning the notion of spending twin-time with Zack, they finally reached New Beginnings. As a contrast to most other centres Cody had researched, this one actually looked pretty new and big. It could easily have been an expensive villa if it had been located in some other part of Boston.

Yesterday, when exploring New Beginnings' website, this had been a surprise for Cody. He had expected that a centre for helping underprivileged children would be a house somewhere in Boston's more dangerous parts. He had thought that such a house would have been a more trusted environment for the children. More so than the mansion he saw now (despite the fact that the dangerous neighbourhood started right behind the centre). Cody was determined to ask Mr. Winters about this rather odd fact.

"So, they have a basketball court somewhere in there?" Zack asked.

"I guess so," Cody replied, walking over to the door of New Beginnings. "You should have seen the pictures on their site! The field looked amazing! I think you'll love it!"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," his twin mumbled. "Let's go inside so I can check out this fantastic court with my own eyes."

And so both men entered New Beginnings and got welcomed by one of the volunteers who guided them straight to the office of Mr. Samuel Winters. The manager looked to be somewhere in his forties and was wearing a black suit - without a tie – as though he were the manager of some very important business company.

"Mr. Winters?" Cody asked as he and his twin brother entered the manager's office.

"That's me. How can I help you, gentlemen?"

"Well, my brother and I would like to volunteer at your centre," he explained. He and Zack sat down on the opposite side of Mr. Winters' desk. "My name is Cody Martin; we spoke to each other on the phone last night."

"Ah yes, Cody, I remember our conversation." He turned to Zack and said, "I guess this must be your brother?"

"My twin brother Zack, yes."

"I understood you both wanted to volunteer here? And one of you was interested in our sports program while the other one was drawn to the homework program?" Mr. Winters asked while skimming through his notes.

"That's right," Cody confirmed. "Zack's here for the sports and I want to help the children on a more academic level."

"Mmm, if I may interrupt?" Zack suddenly spoke up. "I don't know what my brother told you yesterday, but frankly I'm not so sure about volunteering here actually."

"Yes, he told me that," the manager nodded. "But I suggest first we discuss more general stuff and do some paperwork. After that, Zack, you might want to check out our basketball court, and Cody, you might want to see for yourself how our other volunteers are helping kids with homework."

"Sounds like a plan!"

"Good, but before that I should tell you that aside from all the paperwork we need to fill out, we have to check your criminal records. Usually this should be done the next day so you could still start tomorrow if you want. I guess this won't be a problem?"

"No, of course not," Cody answered.

"No, not a problem," his twin brother added with a precarious face. Cody could tell his brother was thinking about the one time he had ended up in mall jail with their friend from Ishkabar, Prince Sanjay. But he knew Zack shouldn't worry about that: he had been innocent, and their mother's friend Delilah had dropped all possible charges against them.

"Good. Very good. And now I'd like to know if you are both willing to work with kids all the time. I'm sure you both like kids; otherwise you wouldn't even be here, but you have to understand it takes more than just liking kids to work with them." All the time during Mr. Winters' exposé, Cody was nodding enthusiastically. "But let's not forget this is a volunteer job. We're not asking for college degrees here. We rather have enthusiastic and passionate volunteers here. So basically what we ask of you is to be passionate about working with kids and to take your job here seriously. We have a responsibility to the kids here who are less fortunate than we are."

"I don't think that would be a problem, sir," Cody replied, deeply impressed by the man's speech.

"I didn't doubt you for a moment, young man," the manager said while he turned to Zack. "But I'm not sure about you, Zack. Your brother has told me you recently had a job at a bowling alley that required you to work with kids too. Yet you're not sure you want to do something similar here?"

"No sir, I meant I wasn't sure if I could volunteer here right now. You see, my brother has been excited about New Beginnings all day, while I wanted to check out the place first, before I made my decision," Zack explained.

Cody was looking at his brother in shock when he heard him talking to Mr. Winters. When they had been discussing this issue before, his twin had never sounded like that: Zack had given him the impression that he was doing this only as a brotherly favour to him. But now it seemed like Zack was really into it. At least by coming up with this explanation his twin had left all options open for the future.

"Ah yes, I can understand that; we'll make sure you like it here." Mr. Winters winked at Zack. "Anyway, Zack, you do realize that for the sports program you'll be spending almost all your Saturdays with the team, plus a few evenings during the week? Will that be any problem with you or your family or girlfriend?"

"Not a problem, sir. I'm single right now."

"Good. And for you, Cody?" he asked, turning himself to Cody now. "Helping with homework requires quite some evenings too. Especially when you succeed in building up a bond with these kids."

"That's no problem for me either. I discussed this with my boyfriend before I called you and he completely supports me, even if it would consume a lot of time," Cody said.

"Oh, I didn't know you were gay, Cody," the manager said and took a deep breath. "Look, I know I may be asking a lot of you, but would you please not tell this to the kids you are working with? Many kids or parents who frequently come to our centre might still have issues with gay people. We cannot risk losing kids or a good volunteer because parents complain about such a trivial thing. I hope you understand?"

"No, it's alright, sir. I wasn't planning on telling everyone anyway; I knew this kind of thing might be an issue when working with different people," he replied.

Mr. Winters seemed to be relieved. "That's good, very good. But please understand, it's not an issue at all for me. After all, we also get teens here who have problems with their sexual orientation."

"That's OK. But Mr. Winters, may I ask you a question, please?"

"Sure, go ahead."

"It's about this centre: I've been wondering if this wouldn't be better if it was a normal house in the neighbourhood? I mean I would think a mansion like this might scare possible kids away." Cody felt relieved at having asked the question he'd wanted to ask for some time now.

"Good question, young man. I can see you're a smart guy," the manager complimented him. "Five years ago, before I got appointed manager here, New Beginnings was indeed located in there. We had built up a great reputation there, bonded with many kids. Lots of people trusted us, but then one night the whole building burnt down. After the fire, City Hall relocated us to this spot where we're still close to our old neighbourhood and got this amazing building. I have to admit I miss the old one, but this one has, as you will soon see for yourself, many advantages too. But the best thing is that we kept our name and got our kids to continue coming here."

"Ah, that explains a lot. You see, I was surfing the net last night and…" he started until he got interrupted by a teenage boy storming into the office.

"Hey Dad, I'm home," the boy yelled in Mr. Winters' direction, throwing his backpack in a corner of the office.

As soon as Cody heard the boy talk, he looked up and recognized him. This was Liam, the very same boy he had seen playing soccer with his friends in the park yesterday. What a coincidence to see him again here! And apparently he was the son of Mr. Winters: it's a small world…

Just like the last time he met Liam, fatherly feelings roused up inside of him. He couldn't help it, but seeing the teen interacting with his dad made him wish that he could have a kid of his own: a great son like Liam, who loved spending time with his father.

It was ridiculous really. Cody very well knew Max wasn't ready to be a dad, yet he kept having a paternal longing. Yesterday he had considered talking about this with Max, but after some thinking, he'd decided against it. He didn't want to force his partner into something he wasn't ready for.

"Hmm...yeah, guys, meet my son, Liam. He sometimes helps out with Coach Michael, our basketball coach," Mr. Winters introduced his son to Cody and his brother. "Liam, this is Mr. Zack Martin and Mr. Cody Martin."

Upon hearing Cody's name, Liam looked in his direction and winked at him. Clearly he had recognized him too.

"Son, maybe you can show Zack here our basketball court and take him to coach Michael? Might be more useful to him than standing here discussing all these details. Meanwhile, I'll personally introduce Cody to our academic program. That OK with you?"

Cody, Zack and Liam all quickly agreed with Mr. Winters' plan. Cody had a really long list of questions he still wanted to pose to the manager, but he knew they would bore his twin to death. And that could possibly have a bad influence on Zack's decision. So his twin brother and Liam quickly walked out of the office to make way to New Beginnings' sports arena.

"And Liam? Be sure to return as soon as possible; you have homework to do, young man!"

* * *

While walking through New Beginnings with Liam, Zack Martin was able to check out the building a bit better; he had to admit, his brother was right. This did look amazing. But frankly he didn't really care about that. If he volunteered here, the place where he would spend most of his time was the basketball court.

Before finally reaching the sports area he passed a room where he saw some of the volunteers helping children with their schoolwork. This was probably where Cody would be spending a lot of his time after college. If he was honest with himself, he still couldn't see him doing the same. Okay, he wouldn't have to bother with academic stuff like Cody, but still, the main reason he was here was because Cody had begged him to come... so they could do something together. And because he liked kids.

That was also one of the reasons why he had loved that night manager-job at the bowling alley. He had really liked interacting with the kids and assisting them with bowling. This had reminded him a bit of the carefree childhood he and his twin brother had had at the Tipton. But, of course, being around bowling had been a main attraction for him too; even though the job itself entailed some responsibility. He had actually liked being in charge there because it had been like being the boss without having too much responsibility.

"Okay, Mr. Zack, this is our sports area, with the basketball court right here," Liam said once they had reached their destination. "Mike's over there; he's the best! He lets me help him all the time."

When he looked in the direction Liam was pointing, Zack saw the coach giving instructions to his team. The coach seemed to be somewhere in his sixties, or possibly even seventy. He was slim built, had grey hair, was wearing glasses and had a sad look on his face. Zack was surprised the guy was even allowed to coach at his age. Shouldn't a good coach be able to show his players some moves, or even play with them at trainings? This guy looked like he could barely run. Never mind play b-ball with kids.

"Um, Mr. Zack, would you mind if I leave you here alone?" Liam suddenly interrupted his thoughts. "I have a lot of homework to do."

"No, not at all. Go ahead, I'll find my way here," he replied. "Oh and Liam, would you call me Zack please?"

"Sure, Zack." The teen grinned. "You could just walk over to Mike there and ask him everything you want to know."

"Thanks, I will!"

But before he walked over to the coach, Zack took some time to observe the old man from a distance. For there were some things about this man that were bothering him: first of all his age, but also his whole person. He'd had some remarkable coaches in the past, but never had he seen one like this one. Compared to him, Coach Little – who did succeed in improving Zack's skills a lot after all – and Arwin were normal. Well, okay, maybe Arwin wasn't… But this man? He just sat on the bench the whole time, not doing anything at all. He never interacted with the kids once.

Suddenly, the object of Zack's thoughts got up from the bench and walked over to where he was standing.

"So, what you think of our team, young man?" he asked.

"I-um-I don't know. They seem decent but I haven't seen them playing long enough, sir."

"Good answer. But please, don't call me 'sir'. It makes me feel even older than I already am." The old man smirked. "My name is Michael, but many here call me Mike. And who might you be?"

"I'm Zack Martin. I'm here with my twin brother, Cody, who's volunteering to help tutor here," he explained.

"Well Zack, would you like to help me coach our team today?"

"Me?" Coach Mike's only answer was a simple nod. "Um…okay, sure. What you want me to do?"

In all honesty, Zack was stunned: this man's question had come totally out of the blue, without any knowledge of his b-ball skills, of the game itself, or of his enthusiasm. While this had made him even more curious to this coach Michael, he decided to go and help him anyway. After all, basketball was still his favourite sport. And how could he say no to that?

He had been right to accept Coach Mike's offer; this hour of playing basketball with the kids had been the most fun he'd had in days. In fact, the most fun ever since Bailey had left him on that fateful Wednesday in September. It turned out Mike was letting him do most of the coaching while he sat on the bench again, just looking around and occasionally taking notes. Not once did he take over for Zack. First, Zack thought this as pretty weird; but after a while he decided this was just Coach Mike's personality. He was a remarkable man indeed. Very friendly, and remarkable.

After training, while he and Coach Mike were clearing the court of basketballs left there by the team, the old coach asked him something that once again took him by surprise. "You enjoyed this, didn't you?"

Zack nodded to show his appreciation.

"You want to do this permanently? Because I need a replacement soon since I'll be quitting here shortly after my seventieth birthday in two weeks."

Zack really didn't know what to answer. He knew that if his brother were here right now he would be urging, or even forcing, him to accept the old man's offer. But he couldn't. He just couldn't. There was still something that stopped him from saying yes right away. Okay, he had told Mr. Winters before that he wanted to volunteer but wasn't sure of the place yet. But that had been no more than a fallacy: he liked this place. Really liked it. The real reason he couldn't say yes straight away, however, was that committing to such a thing freaked him out.

Nevertheless he had really liked coaching the kids, and from the looks of it they had liked him too. He didn't want to close this option already, so he said, "I don't know yet, coach. Can I think about it for a while and say, get back to you in a few days?"

"Sure, no problem, Zack," Coach Mike said. Grinning he added, "Just take your time. I know you'll be back soon and we'll be coaching our next game together."

"Um, okay… See you around!"

He thought that was once again an odd reaction from the old coach, but he shrugged it off because he had just spotted his twin on the other side of the basketball court. It seemed like his conversation and tour with Mr. Winters was over so they could head to Cody's house for dinner soon. Before he reached him, Zack decided not to mention anything about Coach Mike's job offer. If he knew Cody, he'd make a big deal out of it and he didn't want that right now.

* * *

After almost an hour full of interesting discussions with Mr. Winters followed by an extensive tour through New Beginnings, Cody Martin was walking toward the sports area, using the instructions Liam had left him with. He hoped he would be able to see some of the kids there and get to know them already before he would start working here tomorrow.

When he arrived at the basketball court he saw his brother on the field interacting with the kids. It actually looked like he was coaching them. Could it be that his twin had finally seen the attraction of volunteering here at New Beginnings? His answer to Mr. Winters' question had indicated that he would.

Suddenly he noticed on the other side of the court, a little boy who was sitting on the bench all by himself, holding a book. Intrigued by him, Cody walked over to the little brown-haired boy whose legs were dangling because they were too short to reach the floor.

"Hey little one, can I sit here?" he asked.

The small boy didn't answer but gave a small nod which was enough for Cody to sit himself down next to him. Now that he had a better view of the boy, he saw that he had a very sad look on his face, with red eyes from crying while he was holding an old edition from Mark Twain's famous novel 'Tom Sawyer'.

"That's a nice book you're holding there. Is it yours?"

"No, it's Dad's," the boy mumbled before he started to cry.

Cody immediately sensed something was wrong with this boy's father. Clearly the dad was nowhere in his life anymore; maybe even dead.

"What's wrong? You don't have to cry," Cody said comfortingly, putting his arm around the child.

"Daddy's gone," he muttered. "Mommy said he's in heaven now."

"Oh, poor boy! And he gave you that book?" The boy nodded. "That was very nice of him…what's your name, by the way?"

"Ryan. Ryan Mitchell. Dad used to read it for me when I went to bed," Ryan replied. "I wanna read it myself now, but I can't read."

Cody was feeling very sad for Ryan, losing his father on such a young age. His own dad had left when he was young as well, but that had been different. His dad could still visit every now and then. Ryan's couldn't. Having to grow up without him would be very hard for little Ryan.

"Want me to read you a part of it?" he asked. "My name's Cody."

"Okay…"

So he spent the next half hour reading 'Tom Sawyer' to sad little Ryan. During this little reading session, Cody got the feeling Ryan was feeling better than when he first spotted him. Of course, the boy wouldn't forget about his father, but at least he could try to cheer him up a bit.

"Um Ryan, I have to go now," Cody declared as he saw that Zack was clearing up the basketballs. "But I'll be back tomorrow, and I can read you some more if you like?"

"Yeah, I'd love that, Cody," Ryan said with a smile.

He smiled back at the little boy who was slowly stealing his heart. And not because he had awoken his fatherly feelings again, just like Liam had done, but because he felt Ryan needed him, or at least someone he could trust in since it looked as though he didn't have any friends here at New Beginnings. And during this difficult period, Ryan could use any friend he could get. He appeared to be a loner, yet he had opened to Cody. So Cody decided he would help the young boy and try to be that needed friend.

But right now he had to get back home so he could fix dinner for him, his brother and Max. He beckoned Zack over and told him they should head out to the car. During the whole walk and drive to Cody's house, Cody and Zack discussed their experiences at New Beginnings.

* * *

_**Author's Notes: **__Yes, we've finally seen New Beginnings, the centre our characters have been talking about for some time. Immediately we meet some new characters here: Mr. Winters who looks like a decent manager for a place like that, Liam from chapter 1 who happens to be Mr. Winters' son, Coach Mike who is acting very strange and sad little Ryan. This should make the twins' first day at New Beginnings at least memorable._

_Looks like the twins are heading to Cody's place for dinner, maybe this would be the ideal opportunity for Zack to talk to Max, maybe the young wizard has some advice for his brother-in-law? Or will Zack be too impressed from Mr. Winters or Coach Mike?_

_I also want to thank Elianna22 (betareader) and the-lovely-anomaly (editor) for their amazing work with this chapter. Of course I also thank you reader for taking your time to read and review this chapter._


	5. An Eventful Evening

**Chapter 5: An Eventful Evening

* * *

**

"Hey there, sweetie! Wow, what is that delicious food I smell in here?" Max asked Cody as he grabbed him by his waist and put his arms around him, kissing his neck.

"Can't you guess that honey? I thought with your half-Italian heritage you'd be able to figure it out from the smell in the kitchen," Cody teased his boyfriend.

"Oooh, Cody Martin, you're so evil!" Max joked. "Um, let's see, I think I can detect basil here and some garlic: you're making your famous pesto again, aren't you?"

"Yeah, I am, but that's actually not what I meant."

"Okay, there's a hint of ham, Italian ham I guess… Oh wait, is that real Guanciale? Ooh, and if that cheese there is Pecorino, you must be making Spaghetti alla Carbonara!"

"Exactly!" Cody smiled. "Well, it's not spaghetti actually. I thought I'd make a typical Roman dish today, so I chose for Fettucini alla Carbonara. And for dessert we have the Tiramisu I made this morning."

"Sounds lovely! And I smell quite a lot of herbs here too. I guess you're making your own version again?" His boyfriend observed as he let go of him and tried to inspect the food. But before he could taste it, Cody grabbed his hand and stopped him. "Ah, come on, why can't I just taste a little bit? You know my dad's family is from Rome, so I should know when this dish is good."

Cody grinned when he heard his man's reasoning: Max had always been great in finding excuses for trying to taste the food while Cody was cooking. He would never allow this of course; for him it was a sin when people tasted the food before it was finished. You wouldn't go on a test drive in a half finished car either, so why should it be any different with food?

"Good one, Maxie, but it won't help you this time. You'll have to wait until I'm done before you can taste my Fettucini," he laughed.

"Okay…" Max gave in. He seemed to realize he wasn't getting any chance to taste the delicious smelling food, so he changed the subject and asked, "So, I take it New Beginnings was great?"

"Oh Maxie, it was awesome, even better than I expected! I'm so going to love it there!" he exclaimed. "My boss, Mr. Winters, is a very lettered man; we had quite some interesting discussions today actually. And the kids I've seen so far looked nice." He paused for a second as his thoughts wandered to one kid in particular he had met. "There was one very sad boy though."

"And you went to talk to him, I guess?"

"Yeah, turned out his dad recently died and he was feeling very lonely, so I read to him from his dad's book, Tom Sawyer. I think that cheered him up a bit."

"Say no more. You want to make this boy your priority, become his friend, and make sure he feels happy again."

Cody was astonished, for that was exactly what he'd had in mind. It was amazing how well his boyfriend knew him. "Yeah, I guess I'm a bit predictable," he smirked.

"No, you're not; you just have a heart of gold," Max explained as he threw him a loving gaze.

"Thanks." While he wanted no more than for Max to take him in his arms and make love to him right there on the spot, he suddenly remembered the food he was making. Suppressing a little curse, he asked, "Hey Maxie, could you get three plates; the Fettucini is ready."

"Sure," his partner replied, turning to grab some. "I'd better go and get Zack too; he was totally absorbed in the new 'Call of Duty' when I left him to check on you."

"Okay," he replied. "Oh no, wait a second!"

"Yes?"

"How did things go at Justin's? Did he know how to handle the g-ghost?" Cody asked.

"It was OK; he gave me a book about ghosts — like a manual to get rid of ghosts. Typical Justin, giving me a book instead of a straight answer." His boyfriend sighed.

"Oh well, at least we'll know how to get rid of the ghost now. To be honest, the idea of having a ghost creeping around here scared the hell out of me."

"You shouldn't be scared, Cody, I'm here for you," his partner assured him. "Although Justin said you're a total wuss for being afraid of a ghostie. I guess he was trying to play the tough guy again. I can't believe girls actually fall for that!"

"Yeah, many people keep falling for that same trick. I mean, look at Zack's lame tricks; he _always_ tried to get girls with them. And they kept falling for it over and over," Cody sighed.

"I guess you're right," his boyfriend concurred. "Anyway, I'm going to get your brother now."

Cody nodded as Max took off to his game room to get Zack so they all could enjoy their incredible meal. At least, he hoped it would be. But since pasta was one of his specialities that shouldn't be a problem. Incidentally it was also one of Max's favourites — no doubt a taste he inherited from his Italian family members.

Before serving the Fettucini alla Carbonara, he put in a few extra ingredients to give the dish his own touch. First, inspired by his boyfriend, he added a little more of his famous self-made pesto, then he took a few slices of mozzarella cheese and sprinkled a little bit of basil on them before he also added them to his pasta dish.

Finally satisfied with his creation, Cody put the three plates on a tray and brought them to the dining room. To his amazement, the table was already laid out for three by his lovely boyfriend. Pleasantly surprised, he put the three plates down and went to their wine cellar to seek out a wine that was perfect for the occasion and would fit with the menu he prepared today. On the way back to the dining room, he grabbed a bottle of beer for Zack.

When he arrived back at the dining room, his brother and boyfriend were already there, sitting at the table waiting for him. Both were entangled in a vivid discussion about the newest Call of Duty, something Cody never had managed to understand. Even though he used to play many videogames with his twin when he was a teen, nowadays he wasn't really into them anymore. Certainly not like his brother and boyfriend were: they could go on forever playing games (or talking about those games). Oh well, it was definitely a good thing his twin and his partner were good friends, as that was something he had been afraid of when he and Max had come out. He had feared Zack would end up hating Max and blaming him for 'making him gay'. All these years later, this fear seemed so stupid; Zack had been nothing but accepting, and had become very close friends with Max.

Soon all three men were enjoying the delicious meal Cody had made for them. It was very satisfying for him to see that the two other men liked his Fettucini alla Carbonara so much. Even though he just loved to cook and would continue doing so no matter what, he loved to get compliments about his food. It meant his art of cooking was highly appreciated.

To both his brother's and his boyfriend's delight, Cody brought on his famous Tiramisu when everybody was done with the main course. This was by far his best dessert, and also one he'd learned from his mentor at the Tipton Hotel, Chef Paolo. The old Chef had taught him quite a bit — like his predilection for Italian food for example — but with this particular dessert he had managed to outstrip his mentor.

"Wow, Cody, that was really amazing," Zack complimented him when he finished his dessert. "But you didn't need to make something special for me, you know that."

"Thanks, man. This wasn't really special though. I make this kind of food all the time for me and Max," he explained.

"Really? I should visit you guys more often," Zack joked as he stood up to help Cody and Max clear the table.

After the three of them had cleared the table and put everything in the dishwasher, Cody wanted to suggest for them to sit down in the living room, enjoy the wine and talk some more. He was especially keen to hear more about his brother's experience at New Beginnings.

However, Max seemed to have something else on his mind.

"Hey Zack, I bought the new 'Tales of Symphonia' today. Wanna check it out with me?" He asked, winking at Cody. He, of course, immediately understood what his boyfriend was trying to do: he wanted to be alone with Zack so he could talk to him like Cody had suggested.

"You gotta be kidding, dude! You mean you have 'The Riddle of Ginnungagap'? That is so cool!" his brother exclaimed.

"I'm not kidding, believe me. Now, you wanna play or not?"

"Of course I want to! That game should be so awesome! What are we waiting for?" Zack jumped up from the couch and already ran in the direction of Max's game room.

"Max, you're a true genius!" Cody complimented his guy. "But don't forget you're there to talk with Zack about adjusting to adult life and not to get into another level in that game of yours," he added with a smirk.

"Haha… Don't worry, I'll try to remember that." His guy grinned.

"Well, okay. Have fun and good luck, cutie." Max would definitely need all the luck he could get to try to help Zack. "I think I'm going to read that book Justin gave you today. Maybe it will teach me something useful."

"Great! But don't try anything alone, please? As long as we don't know if the ghost is evil or not, we can't be sure how to treat it or if we even need magic."

"Don't worry, I won't," Cody reassured his partner. "Now go play your videogame with my brother."

While he saw Max take off for his game room, he sought out the book his brother-in-law had leaned them. It was a pretty small book with almost 100 pages and was called 'All about Ghosts and Other Scary Phenomena and How to get rid of them'. He thought that was a pretty weird title but went on reading it anyway.

* * *

Soon Max Russo and his boyfriend's twin brother were totally absorbed in the new Tales of Symphonia, which turned out to be the best game of the series so far. For a while he didn't think about what Cody had asked him. The main reason for that was that he still had no idea how he could help Zack. His boyfriend always claimed he had been through a remarkable change after he had won the Wizard Competition and maybe he was right, but such a thing would be hard to relate with in Zack's situation.

It was easy for Cody to say he should talk with his brother-in-law and advise him to grow up. But coming up with the actual advice was much harder to do. He kept thinking about it, postponing the moment when he would bring it up. Instead, he and Zack went on enjoying their game.

After a while, Max decided delaying this conversation wasn't the right thing to do; his brother-in-law needed his help and his boyfriend had requested this of him. And wasn't he known for quickly coming up with schemes and crazy explanations? So why not use that ability now?

But before he could say anything, Zack caught him by surprise and spoke up, "Um, Max, there was something I wanted to ask you about."

"Sure, go ahead, man," Max encouraged him.

"Well, it's something Cody actually suggested for me to do. He said I should talk to you because you once had the same problems that I'm having with Bailey."

"Hmm, yeah, Cody told me a bit about that, but he didn't want to go into too much detail." Although he actually did hear enough details about Zack's situation from his boyfriend, he thought it would be better if Zack explained everything again.

"Bailey thinks I still haven't grown up — that I'm still the same child I was when she met me back on the ship," Zack clarified. "So since you used to be just like me, I thought maybe you could give me advice. After all, you did manage to adjust to adult life better than me, apparently."

"I guess so," he mumbled.

"Can you help me, Max?"

"I don't know, man. I mean, it's not like there are secret things you have to do in order to become an adult," he said, shaking his head.

"Yeah, I know that," his brother-in-law sighed. "But still there must be something you can help me with… I mean you were the same as me, yet you and Cody are such a perfect couple."

"Perfect? Okay, Cody is the best boyfriend I could ever wish for, but we have arguments too. In fact, the last time we had a fight it was about me being too playful."

"Yeah, but Cody doesn't break up with you because you're too childish, does he?" Zack asked. "Of course he doesn't, because you're not a low-life like me!"

Max was stunned when he heard Zack spit those words at him. His brother-in-law seemed to be more depressed and down than his significant other had mentioned. Could it be that Cody hadn't told him everything? Or that Zack hadn't been completely honest with his brother? Was Cody not aware of how low Zack's self-esteem really was?

It was only then that Max was able to grasp how serious things were for his boyfriend's brother. Finally, he completely understood how Cody felt and why he was so determined to help Zack to get back together with Bailey.

"Hey! You're not a low-life at all!" he assured Zack. "You're an awesome guy and anyone should see that, even Bailey."

"Thanks, buddy."

"You know what made the difference for me?" he questioned. "Cody. Thanks to Cody, I learned one of the most important things in a relationship, besides love, is making compromises. That's what I and Cody have been doing and it definitely made us stronger during the years we've been together. Under Cody's influence I developed a more mature side and he developed his playful side more."

"Yeah, um, I'm not gonna date Cody." Zack shuddered. "And it didn't help for me and Bailey anyway."

"Isn't that because you guys both kept holding onto your own way of going through life? I guess Bailey wants the same as my Cody wanted: a quiet life with a good job, a nice house, and a family. While you don't seem to want any of those; you just wanna have fun." Max paused for a second and took a breath, surprised over his own speech. Unlike Cody he had never been known as one with great insight in people's minds, but this time he could easily read his brother-in-law's situation. "You know, we were once in the same situation. But Cody has accepted that he has a wizard boyfriend, while I've adjusted myself to his dreams too."

"Maybe you're right. But it's a bit too late for that now. We broke up; there's no relationship left to work on," Zack sighed.

"Don't be so negative, dude. Cody believes you still have a chance with Bailey, and he should know; he's her best friend," Max tried to reassure him again. "But you know, actually there is a moment in my life that did make me more 'mature': when I won the Wizard Competition."

"Wizard competition? What's that?"

For the first time since he told Cody many years ago, Max explained the wizard rules and the Competition to a non-wizard. "So basically nobody except Cody believed I would even have a chance to win, yet I beat both my brother and my sister. And that changed my life almost as much as meeting Cody. For the first time in my life I was the best in something; I managed to beat both my siblings and the odds. I felt on top of the world, but also I felt for the first time in my life a feeling of responsibility coming over me. Because after the competition I decided to dedicate myself to the wizard cause. For example, now I'm in training to fill the vacant spot in the Wizard Force — a group of wizards who try to help people with their magic when needed."

"Yeah, you were right in the beginning: this doesn't help me," his boyfriend's twin brother said sadly. "I'm not a wizard; I can't go through that competition."

"No, you can't, and I'm not saying you have to. No, I think you have to do something that could change your life too — something that could give your life meaning, something that would make you feel appreciated and help you grow above yourself. This could be a fresh start for you."

"You mean something like coaching a basketball team with underprivileged children?" Zack asked.

"Um, yeah, that could work if you'd feel comfortable with that," he replied. "Why do you ask? Did anyone offer you a job like that?"

"Maybe…" Zack started. "Thanks for your advice anyway, Max. I didn't know you could be so deep. You definitely have grown up."

"So it seems," he said with a bit of melancholy in his voice. He understood at that moment that you never stopped growing up. You just kept on learning new things and adjusting to new situations. Just like now, when he had to play the smart brother-in-law for Zack and give him valuable advice.

* * *

While his brother and boyfriend were playing their videogame together and hopefully talking about Zack's situation, Cody Martin tried not to think about Zack for a while and started reading Justin's ghost manual. It was a rather dull book that mainly dealt with the different kind of ghosts. What he really needed to know wasn't even in it.

He wanted to find out how they could get rid of the ghost. He didn't even know if they were really dealing with one. After all, they hadn't seen much more of the ghost since Max had encountered those strange phenomena yesterday, so maybe it was something else that happened in their house. One of those other ghostly beings who were described in the book perhaps?

Feeling a bit thirsty after pointlessly reading the dull manual, Cody went to the kitchen, quickly grabbed a glass of water, and returned to the living room. Even though the book hadn't helped him get any closer to the mystery of the ghost in their house, he still intended to finish it. With his luck, he figured, something helpful would turn up at the end.

However, when he went to retrieve the book it wasn't there anymore: it had somehow disappeared! Convinced he had left the ghost manual right in front of him on the table, Cody went to investigate the floor around the table. Maybe the book had fallen on the floor after a brusque movement? It couldn't have simply vanished; he was alone in here. Max and Zack were in the game room so they couldn't have had anything to do with this.

Still confused, he went back to the kitchen, thinking that maybe he had taken the book with him when he got himself a glass of water. But deep down, he already knew the manual wouldn't be there. There was definitely something strange going on here. Coincidentally, maybe something he actually needed to missing book for?

Of course the book wasn't in the kitchen either, so he returned to the living room, and there, he saw something else that was weird: the table, where until recently the ghost book had been, was now floating above the floor.

Cody was stunned by what he saw: this just wasn't possible! Furniture couldn't just fly around! Well, they could if Max magically made them do so but that was not what was happening now. There were other powers working here. Justin's ghost book would definitely come in handy now... But of course, that was gone.

Without the manual, and without Max to protect him and tell him what to do, he felt a bit lost — alone and scared. His boyfriend had always been the one to comfort him when he was afraid for something. But now his boyfriend wasn't here; he was alone to face one of his biggest fears – next to penguins – a real ghost that apparently liked taunting him. Not only that, it seemed that it was pretty good at reading his mind too, because at the same time Cody decided to run away to Max — or at least away from the living room — the doors closed and locked themselves. Cody was trapped!

Even though he was scared as hell now, Cody tried to think of a plan. According to the ghost book most ghosts were unrest spirits of dead people who either wanted to ask forgiveness for something they had done during life or who wanted to get revenge on people who had done something to them during life. Hoping the ghost in their house was the first kind, Cody tried to talk to him.

"Um, ghost? Are you there?"

"Of course I'm here! Did you think I was out for tea?" a voice spoke.

"Um, are you an evil ghost?" Cody asked, praying the answer would be no.

"What kind of a stupid question is that? Like an evil ghost set out to kill you will tell you he's evil…"

Great, of all the ghosts around the one in their house just had to be a smartass. "But you're not here to kill me, are you?"

"What did I just say, boy? If I wanted to kill you, I wouldn't tell you and give you the chance to get rid of me," the ghost replied. "You're not the smartest guy of the lot, are you?"

"Hey! I'm smart! I'm in Law School! And I get good grades!"

"You could have fooled me…" the ghost smirked. "Anyway, Mr. Law School, what do you want from me?"

"I want you to get away from my home, or else I'll have to kill you," Cody exclaimed with a trembling voice. Even though he tried to sound brave, he knew he must have sounded ridiculous. Nobody who would have heard him say that would have believed even for one second that he meant what he said. Heck, he wouldn't even have believed himself.

"You're threatening to kill someone who's already dead? Yeah, you're the smart one alright."

Cody had to admit the ghost was actually right this time; that had been a pretty stupid thing to say. And totally unlike him too. Like he would ever want to kill anyone: there wasn't a vicious bone in his body. He could tell that the ghost knew this.

"Okay, you're right, I can't threaten you." Cody decided to use a new tactic to make the ghost leave. "But maybe I can help you?"

"You want to help me? Are you sure there is still a brain cell left in you?" the scary appearance questioned. "Usually people don't help ghosts. They just run away from us... but you honestly want to help me?"

"Um, yeah, if there even is something we can do for you," he replied and immediately added, "And if you won't harm me or Max."

"Don't worry, I won't hurt you or your boyfriend; I'm really not an evil ghost," he explained. "But there is indeed something really important I would want you to do for me."

Cody felt the ghost was telling the truth. At least he didn't look like he wanted to go on a killing rampage; he looked like he really needed help. And as helping was kind of a second nature for Cody, he was prepared to do this even for a ghost.

"Alright, I'll see what I can do," he gave in. "So, who are you and what do you want from us?"

* * *

_**Author's Notes: **__And this marks the end of the 5__th__ chapter of the story. Looks like Zack's talk with Max actually was pretty useful. Maybe now he can give Coach Mike his answer. And what to think about Cody? An encounter with a real ghost! So are there any thoughts about the identity of our smartass ghost?_

_This chapter today marks my FF-birthday. Exactly a year ago I became member of this forum and started enjoying stories here. Later on I even started writing myself and with this one I'm on my third story. Something I never could have done without all your support! Thank you all, it's been an amazing ride so far! :)_

_For this chapter I need to thank two people individually: Elianna22 (betareader) and the-lovely-anomaly (editor)._


	6. Taking A Fresh Start?

**Chapter 6: Taking A Fresh Start?

* * *

**

"My name is Ralph Edwards, or that used to be my name when I was still alive. As ghosts we have nicknames for each other, so almost nobody knows me as Ralph anymore," the ghost, now known as Ralph, replied.

"Ralph Edwards? I don't think I ever heard of you," Cody said, trying to think if he had ever heard of someone going by that name.

"I think you did. Someone mentioned my name Saturday evening."

"Really? I'm pretty sure nobody said anyth-…" Suddenly he remembered that he _had _heard the name Ralph before. "Wait, I think I do remember. You're Professor Crumbs' boyfriend, aren't you?"

"So you do have brains, young man? I'm impressed," Ralph smirked. "Yes, I used to be Brian's boyfriend when I was alive."

"Brian? That's his first name?" The ghost nodded. "I still don't get why you're here now though. Professor Crumbs isn't here anymore, what do you want from us?"

"I need you or your wizard boyfriend to give Brian a message from me," Ralph sighed. "But I'd rather explain that to the both of you together. I don't feel like telling the same story twice."

"Okay, I'll get Max if you won't try to harm us," he said, on his guard against any possible evil plans this ghostly appearance still might have had.

"Don't worry, I'm really not evil. I just want my message delivered to Brian."

"Alright, I think I believe you," Cody stated, more at ease. "Um, the door?" he asked, remembering how Ralph had captured him in the living room.

"It's open."

Relieved that he was finally able to leave the living room, Cody immediately ran toward Max's game room to tell his partner about what had just happened. However, when he reached the hallway he saw his boyfriend standing there chatting with Zack, who already had his coat on. He hoped Max had been able to talk to him and give him some useful advice.

"Oh Cody, there you are! We couldn't find you," Max exclaimed.

"Yeah, we thought you were already in bed," his twin added.

"Sorry guys, I was reading a book. Guess I got so absorbed in it that I forgot about anything else," he tried to explain his absence to Zack so he wouldn't ask questions. His brother had enough things to worry of his own; a house-ghost didn't need to be added to the list.

"Honestly Cody, you can be such a nerd sometimes. Reading a book while you could be playing the best game ever? Unbelievable," Zack smirked. "Anyway, I should be going home, bro." He paused for an instant and added, "And don't worry, I won't go to any bars tonight."

He didn't say it out loud but Cody was immensely relieved. This could mean his twin brother was finally starting to take his life seriously. Maybe the things Max told him had moved his brother more than he would have expected.

"Sweet!" he grinned. "So, wanna go back to New Beginnings with me tomorrow?"

"I don't know, I'm still not sure about that."

"That's okay, Zack. But if you change your mind, just call me, okay?"

"Will do, little brother, will do."

As soon as Zack left, Cody remembered why he had stormed out of the living room. They still had some unfinished business to handle with Ralph the ghost.

"Mmm, Max?"

"Yeah, what's up, sweetie?"

"Um, when I was reading your brother's ghost book, something really weird happened…" he started.

"Let me guess, the ghost?" his boyfriend interrupted him. "I hope he didn't scare you too much!"

"Well, he did at first, but then he started to talk to me and…" Cody explained until he got interrupted again.

"You talked to the ghost?"

He replied with a short nod.

"Do you have any idea how dangerous that could have been? Ghosts can talk you into death!"

When he heard what kind of danger he could have gotten himself in by just talking to a ghost, his face went completely pale. It was a good thing he hadn't known this when Ralph had spoken to him.

"Don't worry, honey, he's harmless," he tried to assure his clearly distressed boyfriend. "In fact, he needs a favour from us, so he needs to talk to both of us."

"A favour, really?" Again, Cody answered his question with a small nod. "And did he mention his name by any chance?"

"He did. He claimed to be Ralph, your Professor Crumbs' ex-boyfriend." At this point his explanation made Max gape at him in shock. Clearly this wasn't exactly what he had been expecting.

"You gotta be kidding!" Max exclaimed. "I have to see this!"

Before his partner had finished his sentence, Max had already left for the living room. Cody, on the other hand, was a little less eager to face the ghost again. Even though he had just stated that he was harmless, he still didn't feel at ease with Ralph. The idea of a ghost just creeped him out too much. Nevertheless, he followed his boyfriend into their living room.

"So you two have finally come. Good, I was getting bored," the ghost said when Cody and his boyfriend entered the room.

"And you must be the ghost claiming to be Professor Crumbs' boyfriend," Max asked, taking his wand out of his trouser pocket and readying himself for a confrontation.

"Yes, in my previous life I was Brian's boyfriend," Ralph answered.

"Brian? You mean Professor Crumbs' first name is Brian?" Max exclaimed in surprise. "That's so weird; I always thought he would have a more old-fashioned name — something like Albus perhaps."

"Never mind the name. Why are you here and what message do you want us to deliver?" Cody suddenly spoke up.

"Yeah, Cody's right! He told me you wanted a favour of us, so spill it, man," his boyfriend added. "And don't try anything funny; I still have my wand ready."

"I can see that, thank you," Ralph the ghost replied. "But you're right, I do owe the both of you an explanation. You see, each ghost is offered a family or a house to live with. Usually this happens at random, but there are also cases where ghosts choose the people they live with. Of course I belong in the second category because I chose to live with you two."

"Um, why us?" Cody asked, still indignant that the ghost had chosen them to scare, or to live with as he called it.

"Isn't that obvious? You and your wizard boyfriend immediately reminded me of myself and Brian. You two are how we could have been, or should have been, if fate hadn't been so cruel to us."

"Fate? You killed yourself! Fate had nothing to do with it," Max exclaimed. "You killed yourself and made Professor Crumbs suffer for the rest of his life!"

"No! That's not true, but thank you for mentioning it. That's actually why I came here," Ralph countered.

"Hm, excuse me, Ralph, but Professor Crumbs told us the whole story two days ago," Cody said. "We know you killed yourself."

"I know… I was there, I heard it all," the ghost said. "You see, I have been living with you ever since you two moved in here and I had a quiet life seeing how much you two loved each other. Until two days ago, when I saw Brian entering your house. Needless to say I was shocked to see him here, but I wasn't really surprised to learn he was there to make sure you were living with a girl. For me that proved he hasn't changed at all after my death."

"That's not true, he did change!" When he heard Max shout like that, Cody thought it was adorable how his boyfriend was defending his old professor.

"You're right, but I only heard that later when he told you guys our story. Honestly, it was a real shock for me to discover he thought I killed myself because I didn't want to live with him anymore. Before this I didn't even know ghosts were able to cry, but after Brian's story I actually cried for hours. Because what he said, what he had believed in for years and had crushed his life, wasn't true. That wasn't what happened."

"So, what did happen then?" Cody asked, somehow actually believing their house-ghost was telling them the truth.

"You remember what Brian told you about my death? That we were arguing and I turned my back and walked away from him?" Both Cody and Max nodded, anxious to hear more. "When I walked away from Brian, I started to think about the things he said; I started to think maybe this time he really was being honest with me. So I turned around and when I looked him in the eyes I saw love — lots of love for me and a cry for forgiveness. At that moment I knew Brian wasn't lying and honestly wanted to give up everything for me. So I decided I wanted to go back to Brian, but then fate decided to play a cruel game with us. You see, I hadn't noticed that close to where I was standing there was oil on the bridge, thus making it very slippery. While turning back to Brian I accidentally stepped in the oil and slipped away."

"You fell from the bridge?" Cody and his partner exclaimed at the same time.

"Yes, when I was about to return to Brian, I slipped and fell off the bridge. I died almost instantly."

"But, that doesn't make sense!" Cody yelled, not sure if he believed Ralph's story. "You can't just fall off a bridge. Wasn't there a railing or anything?"

"Unfortunately no, there wasn't. This happened a long, long time ago, in a very remote village. Everything was shabby. There were no railings. Nothing to break my fall. I just fell...and that was the end of it."

"But what about Professor Crumbs?" he persisted. "He saw it happen; he must have seen it was an accident!"

"That's what I thought too for a long time, until I heard Brian tell talk to you guys about it Saturday night. It was only then that I realized how hard this must have been for him; I've never known I caused him so much pain. This is all my fault, you know… If I hadn't been so stubborn when he came back for me…"

"That's not true, Ralph," Cody assured the ghost, wishing he could hug him to comfort him. "Okay, both you and Professor Crumbs made some mistakes, but your death was nobody's fault. Neither you or Professor Crumbs could help it."

For the second time in two days, Cody and his boyfriend were almost speechless after hearing the sad story of Professor Crumbs' life. He had thought that what Max's old professor had gone through his whole life was bad: having to live with the thought that your boyfriend preferred killing himself over living with you must have been so hard. But this was even worse; now it had become clear that the old professor had been living with hurt his whole life for nothing. Nothing!

Cody wasn't sure how they should handle this. Surely Professor Crumbs deserved to know what really happened on that awful day when he thought he saw his partner commit suicide. Yet Cody was afraid this news might actually crush the old man even more. How would a man react to the realization that he has lived a life of agony based on an awful misunderstanding?

"We have to tell Professor Crumbs! He has to know!" His partner had finally found words to say something and had apparently decided what the course of actions should be. He could live with this: his boyfriend was right; the old professor had the right to know the truth.

"That's actually part of the favour I wanted to ask you two," Ralph interrupted Cody's thinking process.

"Don't worry, we'll take care of that for you," he assured the ghost. "But why can't you just go over to him and tell him yourself?"

"I can't. Once a ghost has chosen a house or a family to live with, he can't leave their house anymore. I'm bound to this place," Ralph explained. "And I don't know if I'd be able to talk to Brian anyway. Seeing him here two days ago really made me all emotional and tongue-tied. You doing this for me, and for him, is really the only option I have."

"And when we help you, will you stop making things happen in our house?" Max demanded. "You scared my boyfriend!"

"I know, and I'm terribly sorry for that." He couldn't believe his own ears: the ghost was actually apologizing to him. "Just do me this favour and tell Brian my story, and that I have always loved him. You'll never hear from me again after that, I promise."

Cody nodded, which was apparently the key for Ralph to disappear. Of course they would do that for him. Both professor Crumbs and Ralph deserved this. And another plus for him personally was that they would get rid of their ghost too because even though he knew now that Ralph was harmless, and even likeable, somehow he still scared him a bit.

* * *

**Tuesday September 22, 2015**

The next day, Max Russo was to be found sitting at Professor Crumbs' desk in his office at WizTech. He had just finished telling his old professor what had happened at their house yesterday evening, including what had really happened when Ralph died all those years ago. The professor had taken the news just like his boyfriend had expected. First he hadn't believed Max, and then he had started crying and left him alone for a while.

All alone in his old professor's office, Max was getting a little worried about the old man. He hoped he wouldn't be doing anything stupid now that he knew the truth. Max would never forgive himself if anything happened to Professor Crumbs due to the news he had brought him. Why did he have to be the one to bring this news anyway? Cody had offered to accompany him but he had declined the offer, thinking Professor Crumbs would feel more comfortable with just him there.

But now Max actually missed his significant other: Cody would have been a much better messenger. All he had been able to do was let the old man go to another room to be alone and cry…

"Professor?" he exclaimed when he saw the old man re-enter his office. "Are you alright?"

"No, Max, I'm pretty far from alright," the professor sighed. "I feel empty, very empty—as if my whole life has been a lie. You know, I don't even know if I want to continue doing this. Long ago, when I buried myself in my magic lessons, I did that because it was like I was taking revenge on Ralph… on the one who made my life miserable. But now that I know Ralph didn't kill himself I don't think I can keep on doing this; it would feel like I'm murdering his memory again."

Yeah, Cody definitely would have been a better choice for this than him. But he was here now, instead of his boyfriend, so he had to make sure Professor Crumbs at least felt better before he went back home.

"I don't know, Professor. I don't think you should give up something you've loved for so long. I'm sure Ralph wouldn't want you to throw your life away on his account again."

"Maybe you're right, maybe you're not. I just don't know what to do!"

"Well, why don't you take some time off from WizTech and other wizard things to think about what happened and consider your possibilities," Max suggested. "And when you come back from your time off, in a few weeks maybe, you can make a new and fresh start in life. A life where you can honour Ralph's memory this time."

"You know, that's actually not a bad idea. Not at all," Professor Crumbs replied. "It looks like you can be pretty smart too, Max. That was some great advice."

"Thanks, professor," he said, glowing in pride that his old professor actually called him smart. "I guess I'll be going now if you'll be okay?"

"Don't worry, I will," Professor Crumbs reassured him. "And I'll let you know when I return from my time off."

"Sounds like a plan!" Max said, after which he rapidly made way out of WizTech School.

While looking for a nice and unseen spot from where he could zap himself back to home, he took his cellphone from his pocket and scrolled to Cody's name in his address book. It was actually very stupid but he had never succeeded to memorize his boyfriend's cellphone number, even though he used it daily. He guessed he probably just didn't have the mind to memorize numbers.

"Hey sweetie," he said once his boyfriend answered his phone.

"Hey Maxie, how did things go with Professor Crumbs?"

"Well, he reacted exactly like you said he would. At first he was shocked and felt lost, but then I advised him to take some time off to re-evaluate his life," he explained.

"Wow, that was amazingly good advice, Maxie. I hope it works for him."

"Thanks! I hope so too, but it's all up to him now," he said. "Anyway, what are you up to? I thought you'd be at New Beginnings by now."

"I would've been, but right before I got in the car Zack called me and asked if he could tag along."

"Zack asked you that?" he exclaimed in shock.

"Yeah, I know, it was quite the surprise for me too. I had hoped he would go there with me on the weekends, but I never would have thought he would want to go there today."

"Maybe it's a good sign?"

"I hope so, sweetie. I really hope so," his boyfriend replied. "But I have to go now. Thanks to the little detour I took to get Zack, I'll be running late."

"Okay, guess I'll see you tonight. Take care, Cody."

"I will. Love you," his significant other added right before he hung up the phone.

* * *

After a short conversation with Mr. Winters concerning their criminal records – which were blank, as was to be expected - Zack Martin left for the sports area of New Beginnings while his brother walked off to his job of helping kids with their homework, mumbling something about reading 'Tom Sawyer' to some little boy.

Unlike his brother, Zack wasn't officially volunteering at the centre yet, although his paperwork had all been fixed. But today he wanted to change that, because Max's advice actually had made a really big impression on him.

It was actually strange but unlike Cody, Max had really come through for him. Even though the things he'd said weren't that different from what Cody had been trying to tell him all the time. With his brother's boyfriend it wasn't the same: they had been so alike in the past. When he heard his story and his advice, Zack had believed it more than anything his brother or anyone else would have told him.

That and the rather odd experience he had with Coach Mike yesterday had influenced his decision to accept the old man's offer of helping him coach and then replacing him in a few weeks. Meeting Coach Mike had been such a strange experience, yet the old man seemed to have a really attractive charisma around him. There was something about Coach Mike that made you trust him right away — that made you feel good and welcome with him. It was no wonder all the kids at New Beginnings liked him so much.

So when he arrived at the basketball court it didn't surprise him in the least that Coach Mike was sitting on the bench looking around over the field doing no coaching at all. A small smile appeared on Zack's face when he walked over to him, hoping the offer would still stand.

"Ah Zack Martin, I didn't expect you back so soon," Coach Mike spoke when he noticed him. "But that doesn't matter. You're welcome here. Let's go look for a customary coaching outfit for you."

Zack was astounded. Apparently the coach already knew why he was there and that his answer was going to be yes, despite that he hadn't told anyone of his decision yet — not even his brother, his brother's boyfriend, or Mr. Winters.

"Um, Coach? How do you know why I'm here?" he asked.

"I just know, Zack," the old coach smiled. "I'm right, aren't I?" he added with a wink.

"Well, I-I-I," he started. While he was thinking about his answer for a last time he looked around the field at the playing kids, and then at the spectators. Suddenly he discovered among them a really hot girl, who was looking in his direction...in a very flirty way! Before he could say or do anything about that, he saw Coach Mike looking at him in anticipation and said, "Yes, you're right; I'm here to tell you I'm taking on your offer."

"You see? I knew you would say yes," the coach laughed at him. "Now let's get you that outfit and I'll officially introduce you to the team."

During the whole training – which was, like last time, lots of fun – the hot girl kept looking at him flirtatiously. It really felt good for him to know there were still girls – and hot girls even – interested in him. He hadn't become an unattractive jerk after his break-up with Bailey after all.

Bailey. More than ever she was going through his mind now. If it hadn't been for her, he would have gone after that girl straight away. But now? Now he wasn't sure what to do: he really wanted Bailey back; he'd believed she was the one for him and was still head over heels for her. But this girl flirting with him was really hot and really into him.

But Bailey… He really wanted her back and getting it on with this girl might be the end of that ambition. If he gave in to her flirting attitude, he might lose the one girl he loved more than anyone else forever. He couldn't do that, he just couldn't. There was no way he would give up his chances with Bailey right now. Not when there was still the slightest possibility that they might end up back together. And besides, getting a girl on the first day of volunteering here might make it look like his only reason for volunteering in the first place was to get girls.

Soon after he made his decision, his first official basketball training was over. It had been really great and had given him a feeling of satisfaction. Max and Cody might have been right after all: this started to look like something he really needed to do. Maybe this could be this fresh start his brother and Max had been talking about. He should remember to thank both of them soon, but for now he settled with expressing his gratitude to the man who had given him this chance: Coach Mike.

* * *

_**Author's Notes: **__Looks like Zack is finally on the good way to get his life back on track: he even managed to resist a hot girl flirting with him. The old Zack wouldn't have been able to. Let's hope Bailey will still want Zack too… And poor Prof. Crumbs too! But maybe now he can think about Ralph without feeling the pain all the time._

_The character of Prof. Crumbs doesn't have a first name in Wizards Of Waverly Place so I decided to name him Brian which is one of the 4 names of Prof. Dumbledore from the Harry Potter-series. As you all know Crumbs is based on him so It thought this would fit him._

_Many thanks go out to Elianna22 (betareader) and the-lovely-anomaly (editor)!_


	7. The First Game

**Chapter 7: The First Game

* * *

**

**Sunday September 27, 2015**

After a few days of intensive training with the New Beginnings basketball team, Zack Martin was attending his first and last game as assistant coach. This was mostly due to the fact that Coach Mike was coaching the last match of his career. After this game, Zack would take over the coaching job from the beloved old man.

Since this was Coach Mike's last game, Zack had given the players a long and encouraging pep talk. He had told them they really needed to win this game for their old coach so he could go out with a win. Zack knew this would mean a lot for Coach Mike: the team meant everything to him! The old man had given most of his life to the team; he'd offered the kids hope by taking them in, no matter how good or bad they were at sports. It was a life-changing experience for many of them. And he, too, had been changed.

There were definitely many people who were grateful to Coach Mike, for many different reasons: it was no wonder there were this many spectators at his last game. Zack was glad to see that so many people had shown up for his predecessor, but this also made him a bit nervous too. After all, this was his first shot at something he really wanted to hold onto. He couldn't screw this up: the New Beginnings basketball team was his fresh start, his key to an adult life. He imagined this must be like how his brother-in-law must have felt when he had to go through his wizard competition.

Somewhere in the middle of the spectators, he had spotted his twin brother and Max amongst the crowd, and just like the whole of New Beginnings they had come to watch the last game of Coach Mike. Zack had to admit it felt pretty damn good to see people attending the game because of him.

It was quite funny to see Cody and Max standing there, trying to hide that they were boyfriends. Of course, as his brother was a horrible actor, it didn't seem to work out that well. One time he had even caught Cody holding his boyfriend's hand and standing a bit too close to be just friends. Luckily for them, they both soon realized what they were doing and stepped a bit further away from each other. Strangely enough, he seemed to be the only person on the whole court who had noticed his brother like that. Well, the only one except one other person.

This was the one person he had longed to see again for days now, yet this was also the same person he had feared to see. Of course he wanted to show Bailey he was being more responsible now, he wanted to show her he was taking the much-discussed fresh start in his life. But on the other hand, Zack was afraid this might not be enough for her: he feared she might just refuse to take him back. Or worse, that she had found someone else. Okay, Cody had claimed Bailey was still in love with him and was waiting for him, but frankly he had never believed his twin brother. Why would she wait for him anyway? He had nothing to offer a girl like Bailey…

But despite how discouraged he was, he was determined to do something about it—or at least try, for the sake of having the slightest chance with her. He had started working on that with this coach-volunteering job, and even more so with this match.

The basketball game was almost at the end of the fourth quarter while his team was still five points behind. With only two minutes to go he knew his team had to score some three pointers so they could have at least a shot at winning the match in the last minutes of the game.

Even though Zack knew that at the end of a game there would be more fouls, which could result in a free throw, he still decided to take a great risk and remove the kid who was their best at free throws off the court. His plan was to bring in a kid named Matt, who wasn't really that good of a basketball player but could make a mean long throw. It was easy: the other players would immediately pass the ball to Matt as soon as he was in the right position and he would score for them. His plan was a long shot but he had to try something, and Coach Mike had also agreed with his idea by giving him a small nod.

In fact, this reminded Zack a bit of his first high school basketball game. Just like Matt he had been the worst player on his team. He too had only been put on the court with only a few minutes to go, but thanks to his skills in one aspect of the game─free throws in his case─he had managed to make their team win the game. And just like he had made it happen in his basketball game long ago, Matt managed to make their team win now. By scoring his second three pointer during the dying seconds of the game, he had made the final score: 74-73 for the New Beginnings team, which was also known as 'The Wolves'.

As soon as the game was over and the public had realized the home team had claimed the victory in the end, almost everyone ─ except the fans of their rival team naturally ─ started cheering simultaneously. While they were celebrating, Zack was looking in Matt's direction; he had done a great job for the team, but more importantly he'd done a great job for himself. Just like Zack had all those years ago. He made a vow to himself that he would improve Matt's other basketball skills; he was determined to make a better player out of him.

Looking around over the court full of rejoicing fans, he caught his twin brother waving goodbye to his boyfriend: it seemed like Max had another appointment he needed to attend, maybe with that wizard force he had mentioned before. But in all honesty, he wasn't really curious as to where Max was off to, or his brother. Although, it did feel good to get a thumbs up from Cody. He wanted to see Bailey; he'd spotted her earlier, standing next to Cody, but now he wasn't able to locate her.

Before Zack could search any further for her he felt a hand on his shoulder.

"Well done, Zack Martin, well done," Coach Mike told him from behind. "I think the future of our Wolves is safe with you."

"Thanks coach! That really means a lot," Zack replied, content with the approval of his mentor.

"You deserve all the praise you'll get, young man," the almost retiring coach assured him. "But I think I'll leave you alone now; there is someone else behind you who wants to see you."

Surprised, he turned his back and looked right into the eyes of his ex-girlfriend, Bailey. Apparently she had disappeared from Cody's side and had walked over to him. He tried to keep his cool but inside he was getting very nervous. This was the first time he was standing face to face with the girl who had broken up with him merely weeks ago.

"Oh, hey Bailey. I didn't know you were here," he tried to start conversation. "How are you?"

"I'm fine, thanks Zack," she smiled at him. "I've been here for the whole game with Cody and Max. But Max had to leave and Cody went looking for some little boy—Ryan, I think it was. So since you're the only one left that I know, I thought I'd go talk to you."

"So I'm your last option, after my brother and his boyfriend. Gee, thanks Bailey…" he replied. There was no need to deny he was really disappointed by what she had just said. He had thought she was there to see him, to talk to him, but apparently he had been wrong. This probably meant she had no interest in getting back together with him after all.

"Oh no, Zack, that's not what I meant at all! I'm sorry!" Bailey exclaimed. "I really came here to see you… to see you coaching, I mean. And I'm talking to you because I want to, not because you're the only one left."

That definitely sounded a lot better than before.

"So, um, did you enjoy the game?" he asked, realizing his nervousness was still there.

"It was alright. But you know me, I've never been as much into sports as you were," she explained. "It was a great victory for your team though."

"Thanks, but it's actually Coach Mike's victory; he was still coach today."

"So, Cody told me you'll be taking over from him?" she asked. "I have to say I'm impressed, Zack. I never thought you had it in you to volunteer at a centre for underprivileged children without asking anything in return."

"I've changed, Bailey," he mumbled. "I know you won't believe me, but I really am a different Zack now. I'm volunteering here, I keep my apartment clean, and I haven't seen a bar from the inside for almost a week."

"Really?" Zack slowly nodded. "That's really great, Zack, I'm happy for you. So maybe you do have something from Cody in you after all," she smirked.

"Very funny." He sighed and then looked down at the floor. "So, uh, Bailey, would you maybe want to go out with me sometime this week?" he asked awkwardly.

"Wow, Zack, I don't really know what to say," his ex responded. Clearly she was really surprised by his blunt proposal.

"Never mind, I get the message: you don't really like me like that." He had a hard time trying to hide his disappointment. After all he had done he really thought Bailey would have said yes. He had done everything people like Cody and Max had told him to do: he had matured and taken a fresh start in his life. Yet it didn't seem enough for Bailey.

"It's not that I don't like you, Zack, and you know that. I just can't let you back into my life as a boyfriend now." She paused for a second to look him in the eyes. "It's too soon now, don't you see that? I agree you have done great efforts so far, but how can I be sure you've really changed? How can I know you're not still the same Zack I left?"

"But I'm not the same, I'm different," he persisted.

"Where have I heard that before?" she said sarcastically. "That's just the thing, I can't take your word for it. As soon as you say you'll never do something again you turn right around and do it. It's annoying! Don't you understand, Zack? I was really tired of your behaviour; I just couldn't go on with you anymore. It would have broken me to stay with you; I just couldn't handle living with a child like you. That's why I left you. I can't consider taking you back unless I'm absolutely sure you've changed and won't make the same mistakes. I'm sorry Zack…"

After Bailey's speech Zack stayed silent for a while. It was difficult trying to find the right words to say, as he had been convinced that what he'd done here would be enough to get back together with her. Hearing her say those harsh words hurt more than he wanted to admit.

"But we can still be friends, I hope?" he asked when he had finally gathered enough courage to say something.

"Of course. We're already friends, aren't we?"

"Yeah, you're right, friend," he replied, trying to sound confident. But on the inside, he was wishing they could be more than friends.

She smiled at him and added, "But I should go now, Zack. See you later!"

"Wait! Where…" Before he could say more, she disappeared, leaving him completely lost. Crushed, for he had just come to realize that he didn't stand a chance with her.

"Zack?" He suddenly heard Coach Mike interrupt his thinking process.

"Yes?"

"Don't give up on her yet; she obviously likes you a lot," the old coach said. "Just keep on walking on this new path you've chosen."

"How can you know that? You don't even know her," Zack replied.

"Maybe, but I can see the love in her eyes when she talks to you," the old man explained. "Believe me, that girl is crazy about you."

"She sure has a funny way of showing it."

"Just believe this old man, I know everything will be okay in the end," the coach predicted. "There is something else I wanted to talk to you about actually. You're still looking for a job?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Well, I heard from a friend of mine that there's a spot open at the Tipton Hotel. They're looking for someone to man the check-in desk. I thought it might be something for you," Coach Mike explained.

"Me? At the Tipton? I don't know," he responded, not knowing what to think of this offer.

"Well, just think about it. I know you would do a great job there," the old man assured him. "But first, there is a farewell party we both have to attend."

Zack nodded and then followed the almost-former coach to the room where other volunteers had prepared a small party for him. While walking through the halls, he thought about Coach Mike's offer. It was true, he really needed a job, and this sounded like a decent one. He would meet many people on the job, which had always been a plus for him when it came to jobs.

But working at the Tipton Hotel? The same hotel he and his twin brother had terrorized during their teen years? He doubted Esteban, the new manager who'd taken over for Moseby, would even allow him to work there. Just like Bailey, they probably wouldn't believe he had changed and wasn't the same prankster who made their lives to hell so many years ago.

And he wasn't sure if he would even want the job anyway. He knew from hotel living that working at the check-in desk wasn't exactly exciting. In fact, only Moseby had been able to get enthusiastic when checking in new guests and he definitely wasn't as boring as Moseby.

Zack decided not to think about the job offer for a while. Maybe he would bring it up later when his brother was around and see what he thought. Speaking of his brother, it seemed he was about the only volunteer missing at his coach's party. Which was actually pretty strange since he had helped them organize the whole thing. He was about to go look for him when he suddenly remembered what Bailey had said about Cody: he had gone off looking for that little boy, Ryan, he kept talking about. He probably was still talking with that kid now.

* * *

Watching his brother's first game as assistant coach had made Cody Martin really happy. It was obvious his twin was enjoying this a lot even though he'd been reluctant to take part in it at first. Somehow this had grown on him. Now they finally had something they could do together, even though they had other jobs at the centre. It felt like they were a team again, as brothers should be.

And maybe this could even help Zack get back together with Bailey. Or at least, that's what his boyfriend thought. By seeing Zack at this game he started to think Max might have been right: this was giving his brother energy that he hadn't seen in him for quite a long time. Maybe it had been a good idea to invite Bailey to Zack's game after all.

Although, he could have gone without the remarks from his coworkers about his supposedly superhot girlfriend. He had denied that immediately because neither Bailey nor Max was looking too happy when they heard their remarks. Nevertheless, he and Max had tried not to look too much like a couple, out of respect for Mr. Winters' request. They'd slipped up once when they unknowingly held hands, but he was sure nobody had noticed.

He had been too busy to pay attention to such a natural action for them, for he had spotted Liam and Mr. Winters watching the game together. And just like the last time he saw them interacting and sharing a father-son bond, it made his longing to be a father himself stronger. To him, Mr. Winters and his son represented the perfect parent-child duo.

Again, he was longing for the moment when Max would be ready to adopt a child on their own so they could both become fathers. He knew this wouldn't happen anytime soon so for the time being, the only sense of a father-son bond he got was the one he saw his boss and Liam share.

Trying to look away from them, he noticed that someone else in the audience was staring at Liam and Mr. Winters. And with the same look Cody must have been wearing: eyes that seemed to say he too longer for a father-son relationship. Eyes that belonged to Ryan. He immediately decided he should go talk to the little boy as soon as the game was over.

So after a very exciting ending of the basketball game, Cody said goodbye to his partner who had an appointment with someone of the Wizard Force, and to Bailey who went to go talk to his brother for the first time in weeks, and went over to greet Ryan.

"Hey there, little man. How are you?" Cody started conversation with the six year old. "I didn't know you were into basketball."

"I'm alright, thanks, Cody. To be honest, I don't think I completely understand the sport, but my dad really liked basketball…" the young boy said, looking at the floor.

"You miss your dad terribly, don't you? I saw how you were looking at Mr. Winters and his son."

"Yeah…" Ryan replied with tears in his eyes.

"Oh, I'm so sorry Ryan!" he said as he put an arm around the young boy. "I didn't mean to make you cry. I thought maybe talking about it would be good for you."

Little Ryan was obviously hesitant over whether or not to tell him about his dad; he didn't know if he could trust him. As a form of support, Cody pulled the boy closer to him to show he was there for him now. "So if you ever want to tell me what happened to your dad, I'll be here to listen."

"I know that," the boy sighed. He took a deep breath, looked up and said, "My dad was really sick when he died. I think Mommy said it was a cancer."

"Cancer? Oh, you poor kid!" Cody exclaimed.

"Yeah, Daddy was in the hospital for almost a month after the doctor told him he had cancer. I went to visit him everyday and he always read to me from his book," the young boy explained while he put the book closer to him. "On his last day, Daddy told me he wouldn't make it and that he was about to leave me but would stay inside me. He said he was proud of me and hoped I would continue making him proud because he said that wherever I went, he would be watching over me. Then he gave me his book and said I should take care of it now and had to read the ending myself because he couldn't anymore. A few hours later they made Mom and me leave the room because daddy was screaming in pain… And then they said Daddy was dead."

When Ryan told the story of his father's death, tears began forming in Cody's eyes. It must have been so hard for the little boy to have to lose his dad like that. No six-year-old should have to go through that and grow up without a father. Okay, he and Zack had grown up without a father, but that was totally different. At least they had one around somewhere and they didn't have to see him die.

Now that Ryan had told him this Cody felt even more determined to befriend him. He knew he couldn't replace his father for him, but he was going to try to be at least some sort of mentor for him.

"It's okay, Ryan. Cry if you want to. I understand," Cody said as he pulled Ryan closer to him in comfort. "How about if, next Wednesday afternoon, instead of doing schoolwork we do fun things together?"

Ryan looked up to him and said, "Yeah, I would like that."

"Great, I'll pick you up at home after lunch, OK?" The little boy nodded enthusiastically. "So, want me to read some more of Tom Sawyer for you?"

* * *

_**Author's Note: **__And once again it doesn't exactly look good for Zack. His talk with Bailey didn't go as he had hoped it would be but at least Coach Mike saw there was still something. Will this all end well for our Zack?_

_Like always I have to thank Elianna22 (beta-reader) and the-lovely-anomaly (editor) for all the work they do for me. I also want to thank Chicas for his enthusiasm and support: thanks!_


	8. Repercussions

**Chapter 8: Repercussions

* * *

**

**Friday October 2, 2015**

Almost a week after his glorious first win with the team, Zack Martin had just finished the final practice for the Wolves' next big game on Saturday. It had been an uneventful and smooth training, like all the others had been since he'd taken over this position from Coach Mike. He had expected to have some trouble with the team during his first week since he was their new coach, but somehow that didn't happen; it seemed Zack had earned some respect from his team members the week he coached alongside Coach Mike.

This could have had something to do with their unexpected win last week. After all, he had been the one who decided to bring Matt in. He liked getting all the credit for that but truth be told, if Matt hadn't been so amazing on the court his plan would have failed for sure. It was a pity the team didn't show Matt the same gratitude they showed him; most likely it was because he was the worst player on their team. Zack had been paying extra attention to him but so far this hadn't led to any significant improvement. Nevertheless, he remained determined to make the boy a better player.

At the moment, however, this wasn't really on his mind. He figured after a lot of training, Matt would eventually improve on his own. So there was nothing to worry about. But there was something else on his mind—two somethings actually: Bailey's refusal to go on a date with him, and the job offer Coach Mike had told him about.

His ex-coach was right: he really needed a job. Preferably one he wouldn't quit. But he wasn't exactly sure this job at the Tipton Hotel would be that job. Yes, everyone—including Cody—kept telling him this was a golden opportunity, an offer he just had to take. And why should he not? It was a decent, well-paid job with job security, and that was pretty important for the future.

And not just for the future. He needed money now since there was still the matter of paying the rent for his apartment. He and Bailey had always split the rent so it had never been an issue before, but now he was alone. Alone and jobless. Which meant the rent was now twice as high, while he basically had no income. So he could really use the money that came with this job. Sure, he could ask his apparently rich brother-in-law to loan him some money; he'd never been a stranger to loaning. But frankly, at this moment, that would have hurt his pride.

Zack had to agree that those were good arguments. But for him they weren't enough to go for the job right away. Working at the check-in desk wasn't exactly something he would call exciting. He could only think of one advantage of it: being able to meet many different people, including some famous ones.

But of course, that wasn't nearly enough for a job to be attractive for him. That wasn't even close to his work as night manager at the local bowling alley—the one job among the ones he'd 'tried' that he had really liked. He would have loved to do something like that again, but unfortunately, people weren't really throwing jobs like that at him. In fact, he hadn't managed to find anything so far.

The closest thing to what could be a dream job for him was actually what he was doing now at New Beginnings: working with kids and doing activities he really liked, such as basketball or bowling. So lately he started to think that maybe he could become a teacher—a gym teacher, that is. That, too, was a job that combined two of the things he had learned to love in work. Alas, he would need a teacher's certificate for that, which would mean going back to school, and there was no way he could afford the tuition fees for such a degree.

He could use the money from the Tipton job, yes, but he just didn't want the dullness of that job. He was still young; he didn't want to give up his dream job yet.

And even he prepared himself to go through with that, it would still be useless. He would never get through the interviews or exam anyway. He was too well known at the Boston Tipton—or rather, his pranks were too well known. Nobody there would ever see him as a responsible young man. He doubted Moseby would even let him in the building, let alone anywhere near the check-in desk. And Moseby's opinion of him would matter a lot since he had been promoted to the general manager of the U.S.A.-chain of Tipton hotels.

So it was really pointless for Zack to even try applying at the Tipton, no matter what his brother kept telling him and regardless of how much he wanted the job. He would have to go on looking for work someplace else—someplace that wasn't the Boston Tipton Hotel, where he had spent his childhood.

The same hotel that he—by accident—was now standing in front of, next to his car. Apparently he had unknowingly driven in the direction of it. Seeing the building there in front of him raised so many happy memories of him and Cody growing up. All the pranks they played. All the times they made Moseby's life hell. But of course, after a while, those memories faded and he started thinking about the offer Coach Mike had told him about.

Maybe he should just get over himself, walk inside, and apply. Maybe that was the best solution for everyone.

Zack shook his head. Best for everyone but himself.

But what if taking on this job would make Bailey want him back? What if taking it would have the effect on her that no other of his job attempts had had? Would it be weird doing a dull job like that for the rest of his life?

He couldn't answer those questions right now. It was true, he was still desperately in love with Bailey. But giving up his dream for her? He couldn't tell—not if there could be another way to win her back. Another way that would give him both his dream job and his dream girl.

But...how? She'd made it very clear to him that what he had done so far wasn't enough for her. She had been happy for him, and she had acknowledged that what he had done to get his life back on track was a great accomplishment. And even better, she had told him that that was exactly what she wanted him to do: take a fresh start at adult life.

Yet it hadn't been enough for her. She wanted to be sure he didn't make the same mistakes again. At first, it had hurt to hear her say those words; initially, he hadn't been able to believe them. But now, many days later, he actually couldn't blame her. So many times had he made idle promises to her and then turned around and backed down on them by doing exactly that which he'd sworn not to do. Taking that into account, it wasn't that odd that Bailey wanted to be sure of him this time before jumping into the vast unknown with him again.

But he knew he had changed, and Cody knew it too. And he knew that Bailey had seen it too; she just didn't want to taking any more risks. So his course of action should be clear: he had to prove to his ex-girlfriend that he wasn't the same guy she walked away from anymore.

The question was how.

It all came back to the same issues. Should he take the job at the Boston Tipton hotel he was still looking at and, thus, forget about his dream job? Or should he refuse to take this job and continue to fulfill his dream? Would getting this job even be enough for Bailey to consider dating him again?

No, he couldn't answer those questions now. Ever since their glorious win on Sunday, they had been penetrating his mind, yet he still couldn't find an answer for them. At least, not an answer that made him happy with himself.

He knew one thing though: he couldn't walk into the Tipton right now to apply for the check-in job. He just couldn't. Besides, he was supposed to have dinner at his brother's today. He had been having dinner there quite a lot in the last few weeks. Somehow, he found comfort in being at his twin's place: the food was always amazing and he could play some nice videogames with Max.

Wait… Max! That's it! That could be the solution to all his problems. His brother's boyfriend was a wizard, so he could ask him to give him some magical assistance to win Bailey over again. Okay, he had asked Cody this before, and he had actually promised beforehand that he would never ask Max for magical favours. But he was sure they would both understand this was an emergency: Max would see this and help him for sure.

Happy that he finally managed to make a decision, Zack started his car again and drove in the direction of Cody's house.

* * *

Two hours later Cody Martin, his boyfriend, and his brother had just finished their incredible meal and had headed over to their living room. The three of them were soon engaged in a nice and friendly discussion about politics and sports. It certainly was fun to talk about those things among family, but now Cody wanted to discuss more important things with his brother.

He wanted to know how his first post-break up talk with Bailey had gone. Cody had asked Bailey about this on numerous occasions but she had refused to explain it to him, saying it was a private matter between her and Zack. His own observation had told him things between Zack and Bailey were still the same. Although it was quite obvious his best friend had been really impressed when she saw that her selfish ex-boyfriend was volunteering to help underprivileged children.

To be completely honest, it didn't really surprise him Bailey had said no to his brother. For him it was obvious that Zack was making that fresh start in life they had been talking about, but he doubted Bailey would see it the same way. After all, he still hadn't been able to find a decent job. So he was kind of hoping Zack would take on that job offer the old coach of the New Beginnings basketball team had made.

As soon as Zack had told him about it, he had relentlessly tried to get him to apply. But for some reason he couldn't discern, Zack wasn't sure if it was for him. While Cody thought it could be his twin brother's golden opportunity, Zack seemed to view it as a dead-end. He didn't understand why; it was a well paid, nearby job and he would meet many different people on a daily basis. What more could someone ask for in a job?

If he'd been in Zack's place he would have run over to the Tipton straight away and applied for it. But he wasn't Zack and he didn't think like Zack did. Instead of applying his twin brother was listing up lame excuses for not taking it. He understood his brother was a bit afraid of Mr. Moseby's reaction, but in fact that wasn't necessary: nobody, not even Mr. Moseby, could refuse to hire someone because he didn't like him.

But Cody thought he had finally managed to understand Zack's real problem. He had thought he understood many times before during the last week, but thanks to something Max said it had become clear to him. His problem was that he didn't want to give in for a partner; he didn't want to make compromises for something he wanted.

Cody had done so for his boyfriend, on quite a few occasions, and Max had done so for him. For example, they both had given up the dream of walking down the aisle and becoming a happy married couple. Alas, that wasn't possible with Max, so they both had to abandon that notion in order to stay together. Cody had given up any possibility for a "normal" life to have his wizard boyfriend whilst Max had given up living in New York, close to his parents' sub shop so Cody could be near a great Law Schools in Boston.

Giving up something you really loved in order to be happy together was part of any relationship—of life itself for that matter. And Zack still had to learn that. Taking this job at the Tipton Hotel and, thus, forgetting about his dream job—whatever his brother's dream job might have been—could have been a saving grace for him in that respect. But it didn't look like Zack was prepared to do such a thing.

So Cody decided to try again and talk some common sense into him. To try telling him that if he really loved Bailey he should give up things like his dream job. But before he could say anything to his brother about the job, or about the conversation with Bailey, Zack suddenly spoke up himself: "Um, Max? There is actually something I wanted to ask you."

"Ask away, dude," his boyfriend replied.

"Well, since you're apparently a wizard, I thought that maybe…" Cody sighed when he guessed what his brother was about to ask: it was the exact thing Zack asked him a few weeks ago and had caused him an internal struggle where he had to choose between brother and boyfriend. "…that maybe you could help me with magic, do some spell or something to help me get back together with Bailey?"

"Really, Zack? You're kidding, aren't you?" Max asked in apparent disbelief.

"Not really…" his twin brother mumbled. "Look, I know you don't like it when people ask that, but I really need Bailey back in my life and everything I do fails. It just isn't enough for her, so if you could use some magic on her…"

Cody was pretty much stunned when he heard his brother say that. He knew Max would never do such a thing. Especially not now when he was trying to keep a clean record for the Wizard Force he was longing to join. And of course, his partner didn't believe in magic-induced love: "That's not real love," he used to say.

"I'm sorry, man, but I can't do that. You know that well enough," Max answered, just like Cody knew he would.

What he hadn't expected was the sadness he could see in Zack's eyes. It was like his brother looked completely defeated, like Max had just taken away the last straw he was still holding on. He had never seen his brother like that before and it pained him to have to see it now. In fact, the very sight of Zack made him doubt Max's magic rules.

"Yes, I know, but I thought maybe for me and my desperate situation you could make an exception. Just this one time? For me, your favourite brother-in-law," Zack pleaded, showing his puppy dog eyes.

"No, not even for this one time. I'm sorry, Zack. I really am, but I can't help you."

"Ugh… please?" his twin brother tried one last time. But this time tears were forming in his face. When he saw that, Cody just couldn't take the pain anymore. Maybe Zack was right; maybe Max should help him with some magical tricks. Just this one time. The longer he looked at Zack, the more Cody got convinced of this.

"Hey Maxie, maybe you could just make an exception for Zack," he tried.

"Cody!" his boyfriend exclaimed. "You know I can't do that, not even for Zack."

"Why not? Why can't you just help my twin brother out? You _know_ how much this means for him. And yet you don't want to help him?"

"Come on, Cody, don't be like that. You know…" Max tried to explain until Cody interrupted him.

"I see. You just don't want to help Zack because he's only my twin and not important enough for your precious little magic!"

"Damn, Cody! You know that's not true! I love Zack as much as my own brother," his partner angrily exclaimed. "You very well know I can't do anything, even if I wanted!"

"Why? I never saw any rule about that in your wizard rules book," Cody spat at his boyfriend. "But you wouldn't know that, you didn't even read it!"

At that moment, Cody realized he might have gone a bit far. That wasn't exactly true. Max had read parts of the rulebook, but most of it they had studied together because he had offered to. It was unreasonable to blame Max for that now, and he knew doing so would hurt him. His boyfriend had really struggled with all the prejudices about his intelligence when he was a teen. Back then, Cody had been the only one to see him like he really was: a pretty smart boy. But now, by saying what he said to Max, he was denying all of that and calling him downright stupid.

Right after he had yelled that to Max, he felt really guilty about it. He didn't want to be so hurtful to his partner, but Max was just making him so angry right now. He just couldn't understand him. Nobody would have to know it if he helped Zack: they were good at keeping things secret.

"I…I…" Max tried, getting all red in his face from anger. "What has that got to do with this? You know I have to be very careful with magic around non-wizards if I want to become a member of the Wizard Force!"

"So you're saying that your stupid gang is more important than my twin brother for you?"

"God, you're being so unreasonable, Cody! You were the one who told me to get a decent job in the wizard world and now you want me to throw all of that away just to help your stupid brother?"

"My brother is not stupid, you jerk!" he yelled, feeling the fury taking control of him as he stopped thinking about any possible consequences. "Wait, you're not just a jerk, you're also a wuss. Seeing as you're apparently too scared to break the rules this _one_ time!"

"I'm a wuss? Me? And that from a guy who's afraid of penguins, for crying out loud!"

The last remark his boyfriend had made, hurt Cody more than he wanted to admit. He had always been a boy with many irrational fears, and had always been easy to scare. When he'd gotten together with Max, Max had been understanding of that side of Cody. In fact, his partner took pride in protecting him from those dangers; in Max's arms he had always felt safe from everything. But this made him think that maybe his boyfriend didn't like that after all.

"Yeah well, at least I don't have double standards like you."

"Double standards? What the hell do you mean?" Max asked, much more calmly than he had been earlier.

"Well, you say you don't want to break any rules because you want to join your precious little Wizard Force. While you're constantly breaking a rule by being together and living with me! And you were brave and broke several rules when we played out our Tyreesha-scheme. Don't you see there's something wrong there?"

"Damn it, Cody, you know Tyreesha is different! What'd you want me to do anyway? Throw you out?" his partner questioned. "Oh, what am I saying? You know I wouldn't ever do that, I love you too much. Even though you're being a total ass today, you're still the love of my life."

Suddenly, it went really quiet in the living room. Typical Max to tell him he loved him in the middle of a huge fight. It didn't miss its effect though: there was no way Cody could continue fighting like that with his partner. All the venom had disappeared after what he'd just said. But that didn't mean he would now agree with Max not wanting to help his twin brother.

"So why can't you just do the same thing now? It's for a good cause," he tried again.

"You just don't get it, do you? Well, I'll explain it again: I will not risk my whole future, with or without the Wizard Force, just because your brother isn't succeeding in wooing a girl!"

"But it's my twin brother! Come on, he deserves this chance," he pleaded. But his partner didn't listen. Quite the opposite. After calming down just seconds ago, Max seemed to be getting angrier again after hearing the exact same request that had caused this huge fight in the first place.

Apparently, Zack had picked up on Max's growing anger too because suddenly he spoke up: "Please guys, don't fight over me. I'm so not worth it."

Cody was about to protest to that: his twin brother was worth a lot in his eyes.

"Anyway, I don't want magic anymore. The price of seeing you two fighting is just too high for me. I can make it work without magic. In fact, I think I just decided I'm going to apply at the Tipton tomorrow."

* * *

_**Author's Notes: **__So it seems Zack is finally determined to go for a decent job and thus forgetting about his dream job. But does he really let it go? Why can't he work for a while and with that money go study for his dream job? For now let's hope Max and Cody will be alright after their huge argument. At the very least it showed Zack's actions weren't without consequences._

_Like always I want to thank Elianna22 (betareader) and the-lovely-anomaly (editor) for their amazing work!_

_Also, as you may have noticed, this chapter is called 'Repercussions' and with this I want to thank Elianna22 for all she has done so far for my FF-writing career, for being an amazing writer herself and for being an awesome friend on FF. Thank you so much, Ellie!_


	9. A New Job?

**Chapter 9: A New Job?

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**

**Saturday October 10, 2015**

Finally, the day had come. Cody Martin was accompanying his older brother to the Boston Tipton Hotel where he would be having his job interview. He was clearly very nervous about it, even though Cody had talked him through several possible questions and had kept telling him that he was the right man for the job.

Cody had really started to believe that himself the week previously. At first, he had thought this job was perfect because of its payment, as well as because it seemed to be a serious job that would put Zack in good favour with Bailey. But after Cody had visited Mr. Moseby to get more information, he'd found that not only was the job perfect for Zack, Zack was perfect for the job. He was very capable of doing all that would be asked of him. Especially when it came to dealing with people; Mr. Moseby was fully aware that socializing was Zack's strong suit.

"Come on, Zack, you'll do great today. No need to be nervous," Cody encouraged his twin brother again, for what felt like the ten-thousandth time.

"I know, you've been telling me that for days now," Zack replied in an annoyed tone. "First by an endless string of phone calls, and now here. I would be less nervous if you'd stop talking about it all the time, man. Could we please talk about something else?"

"Um, yeah, I guess so." Cody was a bit startled by Zack's question. Did he really make him that nervous? His only goal had been to make his brother feel more confident for what was about to come. Apparently, that didn't really work out as planned.

"So, Cody, is everything back to normal between you and Max?" his twin asked. "I mean, when I left you guys last Friday things didn't look good for you two. You never mentioned it during your phone calls and I haven't seen Max since then either. I would hate myself if you guys were to break up because of me."

Cody looked into his brother's eyes and saw how bad he was feeling about what had happened last Friday when he'd asked Max the dreadful question about magic. It felt quite good to know Zack cared so much for him that he was more worried about his relationship than his upcoming job interview.

"Don't worry, Zack, we made up the next day," he finally answered. "Although, I have to admit it took us a whole Saturday before we came to our senses and made up."

"Well, that's good to hear," Zack sighed. "So, you and Max…"

Before his brother could finish his sentence Cody stopped him and said, "Yes, Zack, me and Max had the hottest make-up sex ever. We…"

"Wow, Cody, I just wanted to ask if you and Max wanted to come to my next game tomorrow."

"Oh, um, sorry," Cody mumbled, turning as red as a tomato.

"Don't sweat it, dude. At least it means you're back to being totally in love with each other," Zack comforted him.

Cody felt a bit embarrassed by the slip he had made, but his brother was right. It only meant nothing had changed between him and Max, despite all the harsh words they had yelled to each other on that dreadful Friday evening.

It was actually a perfect example of how their fights usually went, except that this one had gone on for much longer than any before. Usually they'd have an argument, talk about it and make up almost an hour later. And almost every time, talking and apologizing had ended up in make-up sex. He had to giggle a bit when he thought about such previous occasions for there were quite a few, even though his brother had thought they were perfect and never fought.

Lost in thoughts about last Saturday, Cody almost walked past the Tipton Hotel. Luckily for him, his brother was paying attention because he stopped him and was pointing out their destination.

"So, I guess this is it," Zack sighed. "Wish me luck, bro."

"Good luck, Zack," Cody said, pulling his twin brother in for a brotherly hug. "But I'm coming with you; I'd love to talk to Esteban and Mr. Moseby again."

"I thought you told me that Moseby was doing the interviews?"

"Oh, he is, but he won't be doing your interview since he has known us for such a long time and that would make his judgment biased. I don't know who's going to interview you."

"That makes sense, I guess. Oh well, it won't really matter who interviews me; they will all ask the same questions anyway."

"Yeah, you're probably right," Cody responded. "Well, you better head on over to the interview room; you don't want to be late. So um, good luck again. I know you can do it."

"Thanks buddy. You'll wait here for me?"

Cody gave his brother a small nod before he saw him walk away in the direction of the lounge where they had once opened their own club, Club Twin. It had been a great experience for him that had actually taught him a lot about marketing strategy. Strangely enough, it was a lesson he had learned from his brother. Zack had known how to appeal to people, while he himself had failed to enthuse anyone. He surely would be able to use the experience later on if he ever decided to have his own law firm in the future.

Having their own club for that short time had also taught him that when it came to things like that, Zack knew what he was doing. It was because of that little idea-gone-awry that Cody was convinced his twin brother would soon find his way into working life. And more in particular, that he would get this job.

Suddenly this train of thought got stopped by a man with a foreign accent approaching him and greeting him very enthusiastically.

"Little blond people! I didn't know you were coming here today. Do you need a room?"

"No thanks, Esteban," he answered, for it was their old friend Esteban who spoke to him. The former bellhop had apparently made it to the top in the Boston Tipton Hotel because the nametag on his chest now said 'manager'. "But I'm glad to see you too, old friend!"

"So, what brings you here?" the new manager asked. "You haven't been here since you went to live together with your man."

Esteban was right. He had barely been here since he had moved in with Max. He hadn't even gone to visit his mom that much; usually she would visit them because they had a much nicer and bigger house than their old suite in the Tipton.

"You're right, I'm sorry for that," he apologized. "But I came here with Zack today; he applied to work behind the check-in desk here."

"Ah yes, Mr. Moseby mentioned that to me. I'd be happy to have him as an employee here. I think he would do a great job here."

Cody was smiling when he heard that the Latino man believed in Zack as much as he did. If only his brother had heard Esteban saying this… After all, when someone like the manager said he would be perfect for the job, it would give a lot more confidence than Cody could have ever given.

"Well, I hope so; he should be doing his interview now."

"Now?" He gave the manager a short nod. "That's great; I needed to speak with Mr. Moseby soon. I figured since Zack is being interviewed he wouldn't be busy."

"Oh, really? I hoped we could do some catching up." He didn't say it out loud but he felt a bit disappointed Esteban didn't have enough time for him.

"I'm sorry, little blond people. It's good to be the boss, but it's also a very demanding job. But I know Arwin is not busy and he would love to see you again."

"Thanks, Esteban! I think I'll do that," he replied.

"Oh and Cody, don't worry about Zack. Mr. Moseby told me he has a very good chance of getting the job."

That actually surprised him a bit. He knew Mr. Moseby wouldn't object to his brother applying for the job because that wouldn't be fair, but he had feared the previous hotel manager would be sure his twin brother wasn't right for the job. Instead, he seemed to believe in his former adversary as much as Cody did himself. This could only be good news.

After visiting Arwin, it turned out Esteban and Mr. Moseby weren't the only ones in the Boston Tipton hotel who secretly supported Zack. Most of the employees who had already been there during their childhood really wanted his brother to become their co-worker. And to think he was afraid the employees who knew Zack's past as a troublemaker wouldn't accept him if he got the job. If only his twin brother had known about their support earlier…

Support or no support, it looked like Zack's interview was over when he saw his brother had left the lounge and was walking in his direction. Even from where he was standing, he could read the relief on his twin's face. Clearly this whole thing hadn't been a fun experience for Zack. But it was something almost everyone would have to go through. He, too, had it coming once he graduated Law School.

"Hey Zack, how did it go?" he asked once his twin had reached him.

"Well, I don't really know; it was an odd interview," Zack said. "With all my experience in job interviews I never had one like this before."

"Okay, you have to explain to me while we're in the elevator."

"Elevator?"

"Yeah, don't you remember? We were gonna visit Mom after your interview," he explained.

"Oh right… Now I remember. She's been complaining how we never come to visit her for ages."

"Exactly why we're going," Cody said as they entered the elevator and went off for the once so familiar 23rd floor. "Now, how did this weird interview go? And what questions did they ask you?"

"Well…First there were the normal questions like 'Why do you want to do this job?' or 'Tell us about yourself and your ambition'," his older brother started. "But I had myself prepared for those kinds of questions, just like I knew what to answer when he asked for my positive and negative qualities."

"Hmm, I'm failing to see the weird stuff here. Nothing out of the ordinary going on there if you ask me."

"It gets stranger, believe me," his brother said. "After that he asked me for my favourite colour and... now it gets really weird, 'What is the capital of Assyria?'"

"What? How can that be relevant for the check-in desk?" Cody had heard of strange questions but this one took the cake. Almost no one would know the answer to that one since Assyria had had many capitals in the past. There wasn't one definitive capital. "I guess you couldn't answer that one?"

"Of course not. That kind of brain stuff is more for you. Anyway, it gets weirder since his next question was, 'What is the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow?'."

"The what! What kind of a stupid question is that?" Cody was completely perplexed now. He had thought the previous question was weird but now he didn't know what he should say. Neither did he know the answer, for that matter. And he knew his brother didn't. "And what did you answer?"

"I asked if he meant a European or an African swallow, but he couldn't answer that so he said the interview was over and that I would hear from them next week or the week after," Zack explained.

"Okay, you were right, that was some strange interview you went through there," he said while he was thinking this man must have been crazy. He couldn't have been serious in asking his brother those things, could he? Cody was just hoping this weird man wouldn't influence his brother's chances for the job. "Oh, we're here already. Mom will be so happy to see us!"

Their mom was indeed very glad to see her twin boys again. And she appeared to be very proud of his older brother. And why not? Zack had given their mom little to be proud of during their childhood and teen years. But now that had changed; volunteering to help underprivileged children and applying for a real and decent job were definitely a lot to be proud of for a mother.

"This is such great news, Zack. Maybe you and I will be coworkers soon!" their mom exclaimed.

"Um yeah, let's not get ahead of ourselves here, Mom," his brother interrupted their mother's enthusiasm. "There's been nothing decided yet. Chances that I don't make it are very big."

"Nonsense! Of course you'll get the job! Mr. Moseby told me himself you had a good chance to make it if you did well on your interview," she explained to his brother what he had heard from Esteban earlier today.

"I certainly hope you're right, Mom," his brother mumbled.

"Trust me, a mom always knows," their mother laughed. "What made you decide to apply here anyway, Zack? I never thought that would be a job for you."

"Coach Mike told me about it, but it's actually mostly thanks to Cody and Max that I was here today to do the job interview. Last Friday they made me realize I just had to take on this golden opportunity."

"Really? What happened on Friday?" their mom asked.

"Um, nothing special," Cody quickly said before his brother had the chance to tell their mother what really happened. "We just convinced Zack he would love this job."

"You're not being completely honest with me, are you, Cody?" Obviously he still couldn't lie or hide anything from his mother. If only he was as good at that as his brother or Max. "But that's alright I guess. You helped your brother. That's good enough for me," she added. "How's Max by the way? I was hoping he'd be here with you today."

"Oh, he's fine. Before we left, he got a phone call from his old professor; it was something urgent he needed Max for. He would have been here if it hadn't been for that."

* * *

For the second time in just a few weeks time, Max Russo was to be found sitting at Professor Crumb's desk. Once again he was sitting there, waiting for the old man to get back to him. But this time not because he had been crying, but because a student needed his immediate attention.

Nevertheless it left him in the same situation as when he'd told the old teacher the truth about the death of his former boyfriend, Ralph. He hadn't really taken the news that well, but could he be blamed? The news must have been devastating for Professor Crumbs, which was why he had suggested taking some time off to think about things. Max assumed that that was why he had called him: to share some thoughts with him, since he was one of the few who knew his secret.

But while sitting there his thoughts were wandering off, away from his old professor and the possible reason his presence was requested here. Instead he started thinking of his boyfriend and brother-in-law. Zack must be having his job interview right now, while Cody was probably waiting outside, as nervous as ever. No doubt Cody would have spent the entire ride to the Tipton hotel telling his twin not to worry.

Max knew how persistent Cody could be when it came to stuff like that. He had experienced it himself when he and his own siblings had to go through the Wizard Competition. His boyfriend had been there too, cheering for him so much that it had started to annoy him a bit. Although he had to admit he loved it that there was at least someone who was supporting him and not one of his siblings like his parents had done.

Suddenly his thoughts got interrupted by the sound of Professor Crumbs finally returning to his office. It was about time; he was getting very anxious to know why he had been invited here in the first place. Okay, he was sure it had to do with Ralph, but apart from that he had no idea.

"Sorry for making you wait so long, Max, but some students really needed my help," the old professor explained while he was making sure the door was closed so nobody could disturb them. "Anyway, I wanted to tell you I followed your advice."

"My advice again?" he asked.

"You know, when you told me about Ralph you told me I should take some time off from work and take a little vacation to think about the past and the future," the professor explained.

"And did it help, Professor?" he wanted to know. He felt a bit proud the old man had followed his advice.

"It certainly did, my boy," the old professor responded. "At first I wasn't sure what to do or where to go. But then I thought to myself, 'this all has to do with Ralph,' so I decided I should visit his old home where he'd spent his childhood. That would be the ideal place to think. And it turned out it was indeed the best place for that because during my time there I came to a decision. One that might be of some importance for you too."

"Important for me? What do you mean, professor? I don't follow you," Max said in confusion.

"Well, I wanted to do something to honour Ralph's memory; I want to make sure he didn't die in vain. So I decided that from now on, instead of being a severe Wizard Council-member, I would dedicate my life to making homosexuality among wizards acceptable. Ralph would have wanted it that way."

Max was astounded by what he was hearing. Could it be true what his old professor was saying? Could this mean that he and Cody would be allowed to be together in the future instead of playing out their Tyreesha-scheme? He was already imagining himself showing his perfect boyfriend to other wizards.

"Um, Professor, you really think you could do that?"

"I'm fairly confident I can, Max," the old man replied. "It might take a few years, but I know someday gay wizards will not only be accepted but have the same rights as straight wizards."

"So, that means I would be able to live together with Cody but not marry him?" The professor answered with an enthusiastic nod. "But um, would that also include the right to adopt children?"

"Of course, that will have to be possible too because, as you know, children from families with only one wizard will only be wizards when they are biological children of that wizard. Why do you ask that anyway, Max? Are you and Cody planning something?"

"Not at this moment, no. But I know Cody is longing to have kids someday. I think he's just waiting for me to be ready before suggesting it," he explained.

"And do you want children yourself, Max?" Professor Crumbs questioned him with piercing eyes.

"I don't know. I think so…" he mumbled. "It would make Cody happy, and that's the most important thing."

"Aah, but are you ready for that?" Before Max could answer him the old professor motioned that he didn't have to say anything. "No need to answer, young man. I can see it in your eyes; you're not ready for the next step in your relationship with Cody. And if this old man may give you a piece of advice, don't do something you know you're not ready for. I'm sure Cody understands that. In fact I think he doesn't want to force you into something you're not ready for either. After all, he loves you very much."

"I guess you're right." Suddenly his eyes lit up and a smile showed on his face. "But that still means Cody and I can be legally together when you succeed?"

"Yes, and don't worry, I will succeed. I've never felt more alive and determined in years," Professor Crumbs said, also with a smile on his face. "So, um, do you think Ralph would like what I decided?"

"Definitely. He would be very proud of you, Professor."

Although he was sure Ralph would approve of Professor Crumbs' decision he still was going to ask him about it. He had a feeling this would be very good for their ghost; it would make him realize that through his tragic death he might save future generations of wizards who wouldn't have to go through the same thing that had cost him his life.

And not only that, life for him and Cody could be much better too. He couldn't wait to tell his sweetheart the news.

* * *

_**Author's Notes: **__First of all my excuses for this rather long wait but it's December now which is a busy month for many of us. Anyway, this is almost the last chapter of "New Beginnings"; we will have only 1 chapter left actually. But don't fear, I'm already working on ideas and storylines for the sequel of this story. The forenamed sequel will also conclude this series. _

_For now I want to thank Elianna22 (betareader) and the-lovely-anomaly (editor) for their work on this chapter._

_Two questions in Zack's interview were taken from the movie "Monty Python And The Holy Grail". Therefore credit for those questions should go to Monty Python, not to me.  
_


	10. The Moment They'd All Been Waiting For

**Chapter 10: ****The Moment They'd All Been Waiting For

* * *

**

**Monday October 19, 2015**

A few days later, Zack Martin had just returned from a short afternoon of work at New Beginnings and shopping for dinner. It was only the day after his last game so he hadn't scheduled a practice yet. However, he had opened the basketball court for everyone this week so he could spot new talent amongst the underprivileged children who frequented New Beginnings. But today there weren't many children out playing basketball; they were probably busier with their homework at this time of the week. It didn't really matter though; he was pretty sure more kids would show up eventually.

Although he had to admit, his team didn't really need new players: they had a pretty good team already. Of course, the more kids he could make happy with basketball the better, but that wasn't the only reason he was spending so much time scouting for new possible players. He needed this because he had to have something to think about, something that wasn't the Boston Tipton hotel or the interview he did there. He never admitted it to Cody but waiting for them to call him made him very nervous. If he would have told his brother this he probably would have made it even worse.

But his plan was working: whenever he was at New Beginnings working on his team, he wasn't thinking about the Tipton at all. It never even crossed his mind. However, when he got home he thought about the job the whole time.

At home, he decided to try out one of his twin brother's famous pasta recipes that he had written down for him. Zack had never liked cooking, but since he was back to living alone he had been cooking for himself a lot. After all, he couldn't keep bothering Max and Cody every day for dinner. Luckily, his brother was a good cook and a great support for him so he had provided him with lots of recipes, and had written their instructions out very clearly so he couldn't really fail in following them.

Today he was making Tagliatelle with some green sauce he couldn't remember the name of but smelled pretty good. Most likely thanks to the basil his twin had given him with the advice to take good care of it because it could make any dish taste much better.

But before he could add any other ingredient to the dish, his phone rang in his pocket. Expecting it to be his twin brother with yet another piece of advice for him, he fished his phone out of his pants.

"Yeah, Cody?"

"I am speaking with Zack Martin, aren't I?" the other voice asked.

"Yes, this is him."

"Ah good, you're speaking with Esteban Julio Ricardo Montoya de la Rosa Ramirez, manager of the Boston Tipton."

"Esteban?" he realized this had to be the moment he had been waiting for. Yet he didn't ask for that right away, but instead he asked, "Do you always tell your whole name when you're calling someone for work?"

"What? Of course! People need to know who I am when I call them," the Tipton manager replied in his typical accent.

"Wow, your phone calls must take hours. Won't be good for your phone bill," he joked.

"We do have a huge bill every month yes, but that's not what I'm calling you for, Zack."

Zack took a deep breath. This was it. Now he would know if he indeed got the job at the Tipton and would be able to make a new start in his working life. And by doing that, woo Bailey again. Yes, there was really a lot depending on what his old friend Esteban was about to say now.

"So, why are you calling?"

"It's about the application you did here last week. We have interviewed all the candidates, looked over their profiles and Mr. Moseby and I have come to a decision," Esteban explained.

Before the manager could say who they had chosen, Zack interrupted him and said, "Don't worry about me, Esteban. I've been rejected at many jobs before. I can take the bad news."

"Bad news? But little blond people, there is no bad news. I'm calling you to tell you personally you get the job."

"That's okay, Esteban, I knew I wouldn't be…" he started to say until he suddenly realized the manager hadn't said what he thought he would. "Wait, what? I get the job? Really? You're not kidding, are you?"

"No Zack, I'm not kidding. You were by far the best candidate to apply for the job," his future boss said. "You can start here next Monday with a short training so you'll learn everything about your tasks at the Tipton. I think your training won't take too long because we really need someone new at the check-in desk as soon as possible."

"This is so awesome, Esteban! I honestly never expected to make it but I'll be there next Monday. This is so awesome, I gotta tell Cody, and Bailey, and Max, and…" Zack was clearly very overwhelmed by the news. Even in his wildest dreams he wouldn't have dreamt of being the one picked for this job. It felt quite good to know he had been the best at something; maybe this was what his brother-in-law had felt too with his wizard competition. "So, when do I need to sign a contract?"

"Well, I cleared out my schedule tomorrow morning between ten and eleven. So if that suits you, we can sign your contract then and go over other practical issues we need to address before you can start at the Tipton. That works for you?" With this Esteban's tone had drastically changed from that of a good friend to a correct boss. It made Zack realize that working with the former bellhop as his new boss might be at least slightly awkward.

"No, won't be a problem. I'll be there at ten," he replied.

"Good, I'll see you tomorrow then. Bye, Zack."

"Bye Esteban, and thanks again," he said as he finished the phone call that maybe meant the start of a new part in his life.

He still had a hard time realizing that he had managed to be the best out of all those other candidates. Even though he thought he had totally screwed up his bizarre job interview. Or that Moseby would refuse to hire him due to all his childhood mishaps.

But that didn't matter anymore. He could go back to work soon, and to a serious job. One that the people around him would have liked him to take on much sooner. Now all he could do was try to do his very best at his work so he could stay there for a longer time. And of course, he was hoping Bailey would consider going out with him. But even if she said yes they probably wouldn't go back to dating soon, as he had understood from their last discussion that Bailey wanted to take it easy this time.

Nevertheless, he really had to call her now; he just had to let her know about this fantastic news! However, it seemed his former girlfriend's mobile phone wasn't switched on at the moment (or perhaps her battery had died) because he ended up hearing her answering machine telling him she wasn't available at the moment and that he should leave her a message after the beep-tone.

"Hey Bailey, it's Zack here. I just wanted to let you know I'll be starting at the Tipton next week; I'll be working at the check-in desk. It's, um, a more serious adult job, and I promise I won't be quitting this one—or at least not anytime soon. And, um, that's about all I think. I mean, I wanted to ask you out on a date or something but you're probably gonna say no anyway, so why bother? Oh, maybe you could come to the big basketball game on Saturday? I know you don't really like sports like that but you could come with Cody; it would really mean a lot to me, Bailey. Hmm, I guess that's all. Hope to see you there next Saturday. Bye!"

When Zack put down his phone he wasn't really satisfied with the message he had left on Bailey's answering machine. There was so much more he'd wanted to say but hadn't been able to because he had chickened out when he wanted to ask for more. Before his call he had been certain his former girlfriend would give him a second chance, but as soon as he had heard her voice he suddenly had known she wouldn't.

But at least he hoped she would take his offer and be there for the big match on Saturday. That would be his last chance to woo her again. After all, he had done almost everything his little brother and his brother-in-law had advised him to do. If all of this wasn't enough to convince her that he wasn't the same person she left then he was probably better off letting Bailey go and forgetting about her.

But now there should be other things on his mind. He had only recently learned he'd gotten the job at the Tipton; he should be telling this news to everyone he knew. His mother, Cody, Max or even Coach Mike, who had told him about this in the first place: they all needed to know!

There was a small problem with telling Coach Mike though. He hadn't been seen in weeks. Zack had assumed his old mentor might have been on a well-deserved vacation but even after a while he was still nowhere to be found. And the weirdest thing was that nobody at New Beginnings or his neighbours had seen Coach Mike for a long time. It was like the old man had suddenly disappeared off the face of the Earth. So no matter how bad he wanted to think him, there was no way for him to do so...except by maybe going outside, looking up at the sky and shouting a "thank you." Maybe his message could reach him that way.

He thought about calling his mom first but she would have been preparing for her show (or even performing her show) right about then. Definitely not the best time to disturb her, even when his news was this good. The next one on his list of people to tell was his brother, followed by Max since it had been their advice—or rather, their fight—that had caused him to make the final decision about this job.

He shortly considered calling his twin brother but decided against that because he figured telling him in person might just be more fun. Zack definitely couldn't wait to see his brother's and Max's faces when he told them the news. It would be so much better than a phone call!

So he quickly finished making his dinner, ate it, and then left for his brother's place.

* * *

**Saturday October 24, 2015**

Just like many other weekends lately, Cody Martin was to be found watching the basketball game his brother's team was playing. Since basketball was pretty popular there were always many kids present, and Cody thought it would be nice to be there for the children, even while it wasn't his volunteering shift.

There were two people there who usually got his special attention: the first one was his brother Zack. It still amazed him when he saw how happy Zack was when he was coaching the New Beginnings Wolves. And to think he didn't even want to do it in the first place. It was amazing how his volunteer work here made him so full of joy, and more importantly, he had a very decent job at the Tipton hotel coming. Things were finally working out for his brother; now the only thing left for him to do was impress Bailey. So far, she'd proven not to be convinced of Zack's sincerity in changing himself so easily. Although she did come to Zack's again, so maybe there was still a little bit of hope.

The second one he was paying more attention too was the little boy Ryan. During the past weeks he and Ryan had become closer. Cody was no longer only helping the boy with his schoolwork, but was also trying to be a friend and mentor for him since the six-year-old had lost his dad not too long ago. He had decided that today Max should meet Ryan. His boyfriend had been very anxious to meet the little boy he had been telling him so much about.

So after the game Bailey left for Zack right away while Cody and Max went to seek Ryan out somewhere in the public. Like many times, he found the young boy close to where Mr. Winters and his son had been watching the game. Obviously Ryan had been watching Mr. Winters and Liam interact, which, like always, resulted in a very sad young boy who really missed his daddy. And just like always, Cody would be there to comfort his young friend.

"Hey there, Ryan! How are you?" he said when they had located and approached the young boy.

"Hey Cody, I'm alright," the young boy replied while he glanced for a last time in Liam's and his father's direction. "You want to hang out again?"

"Sure thing, little buddy," Cody responded. "But first there is someone I wanted you to meet."

"Really? Who?"

"This guy here," he said as he pulled Max closer. "This is Max. He's a very good friend of me. I told him a lot about you and he really wanted to finally meet you in person."

"Did you tell him everything?" Ryan asked with a concerned voice.

Cody immediately understood what his young friend was thinking about. Like every boy, or guy, Ryan had been a bit embarrassed about crying so much and now he was afraid of being seen as a cry baby. But before Cody could answer this he got interrupted by his boyfriend.

"Well, Cody told me you were a very cool little guy, and a very brave one too. He even said you're the greatest kid he's ever met." That made little Ryan actually blush a little. "So, did you like the game, Ryan?"

"A bit. We lost, Mr. Max," the young boy said with a sad face.

"Yeah, I saw that. But I think the team did pretty well," Cody's partner mentioned. "And don't call me 'Mr. Max' please; Max would be enough. After all, you're very good friends with my bo… I mean, best friend."

Cody sent a quick but evil glare in Max's direction to make clear he knew he should be more careful with certain information here.

"Anyway Ryan, do you like to play basketball too?" The six year old nodded. "So, what you think of a little one-on-one against me? And Cody can play with you if you want."

"Yeah, that would be fun!"

Cody was a little astonished from the scene he was witnessing here. His Max seemed to have a way with kids—a side he hadn't shown until now. Maybe children for them wouldn't be as far away as he thought. Certainly not if Professor Crumbs' plans worked out and Wizard Law allowed them to adopt. And they probably would; he had never seen the old professor so determined before. At least one good thing had come from that determination already: their house-ghost Ralph had disappeared after Max had told him about Professor Crumbs' plans. It seemed he had finally been able to go to rest. Cody wouldn't admit it but he was relieved there was no ghost in their house anymore. Not only because Ralph was now happy, but also because he still kept giving him the creeps every time he saw him.

They had fun with their little game of basketball… although it quickly became painfully clear that even little Ryan surpassed Cody when it came to athletic skills. No wonder he always got benched as a teen; he really sucked. But his little buddy seemed to enjoy this game with him and Max, and that was the important thing.

Suddenly, he spotted his brother on the other side of the basketball court. To his surprise—or maybe not—he saw him talking with Bailey. And apparently not only talking, as it seemed like Bailey was leaning in for his twin brother's lips!

* * *

Yes, the moment Zack Martin had been waiting for since he had left his ex-girlfriend the message on her answer machine had finally arrived. Now they would be able to talk, and Bailey would see he had grown up and was ready to be the boyfriend she wanted to have. No, the boyfriend she deserved to have.

"Hey Bailey, I'm glad you could come today," he began.

"That's okay; it's always nice to see you coaching. You're real passionate about this, aren't you?"

"Yeah, I love doing this," he replied. "Anyway, um, Bailey, did you know I'll start working at the Tipton hotel tomorrow? And I'm being a pretty good coach, and helping out underprivileged children at the same time. See, I'm taking responsibility now, just li…"

Before he could finish his ultimate plea, Bailey had come closer and put a finger on his lips to make him stop babbling.

"Don't say anything, Zack," she whispered. "I've always known you could do this. The only thing you needed to learn was to believe in yourself, to take yourself more seriously."

Zack was speechless. Did Bailey believe in him? Did she still love him, and want him back? Could this be true?

After a full minute of gazing into each other's eyes, he got his answer. Bailey leaned in to him for a passionate reunion kiss. And of course, he gave in right away; this was the moment he'd been dreaming of for weeks and it felt damn good! Nothing could bring him down now. He felt like he was truly on top of the world while passionately kissing the girl he loved so much.

* * *

"Max, do you see the same thing I see?" Cody Martin asked after poking his boyfriend.

"Um, that depends on what you mean by that?"

"Well, there." Cody pointed to the spot where his brother and his almost new girlfriend were kissing passionately. "Don't you see it? Zack and Bailey are standing there together."

"Oh yeah, now that you mention it, they seem to be getting along pretty well," his partner added with a wink. "I think I'll go there too; there's something I have to give Zack."

Cody was a bit confused at what his boyfriend just said. What could he need to give Zack? And why now? It was pretty obvious this wasn't the right moment to disturb his twin brother. This seemed to be the moment they all had been waiting for. This was all Zack had been working for these last few weeks. And seeing his older brother this happy again with Bailey made him feel really happy too.

"Um, Cody, can we play some more?" Ryan interrupted his train of thoughts.

"Oh, of course, buddy," he replied while he grabbed the ball and attempted a shot at the ring. "You know, Ryan, I never knew you were this good. Maybe in the future you can try out for Zack's team too," he suggested after his shot totally missed the basket.

"Honestly, Cody, you stink at this sport," his boyfriend remarked, suddenly appearing behind him.

"I know… I've never been good at basketball."

"Oh, really?" Max smirked. "Is there any sport you are good at?"

"Ha, very funny, Maxie," he mumbled. "Now tell me, what did you give Zack that was so important?"

"Nothing major, just a key," Max answered. "A key to a space designed to spend a perfect date together. It's something I just created," his boyfriend explained, showing him a small part of his wand. The part he showed him was small enough not to make Ryan suspicious but also large enough to make Cody understand what Max had done.

"Why? I thought you didn't want to do this?"

"I know. He asked me the same thing. I told him since he managed to woo Bailey again without my help, he deserved a small reward." His boyfriend paused for a second and looked into his eyes. "And there was another reason for doing this: I kind of owed it to you."

"Oh Maxie, you're really the best!" Cody exclaimed, and immediately he regretted not being able hug and kiss his partner because what he just did was so sweet. It made him totally forget about the fight they'd had earlier.

"Cody?" a small voice suddenly asked.

"Yes?"

"Why is Mr. Zack kissing that girl over there for so long? Doesn't he need to breathe?"

"That's because she's his new girlfriend, buddy. They love each other," Cody laughed and patted the young boy on his shoulder.

* * *

_**Author's Notes: **__And with this we reach the end of the third story in this series. There will be one last part to complete the story about Max and Cody's life that started long ago at the SS Tipton. Like always I won't be promising when the story will be written but it will be sometime in the future. So be on the lookout for that!_

_Of course I absolutely have to thank two amazing persons who helped me a lot with this story by betareading or editing my chapters. Thank you so much, Elianna22 and the-lovely-anomaly! Couldn't have done it without you both_

_Lastly I want to refer to tiger002's awards show, Suite Life Awards 2010. So I'd say: take a look at the show and why not vote for the stories you think deserve an award? It so happens I've been nominated a few times there as well. ;)_


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